Whence

//ʍɛns// adv, conj

adv, conj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    From where; from which place or source. archaic, formal, literary, not-comparable

    "Whence came I?"

Adverb
  1. 1
    from what place, source, or cause wordnet
Conjunction
  1. 1
    Used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been stated; thence literary, poetic

    "The work is slow and dangerous, whence the high costs."

Synonyms

All synonyms
accordinglyawaybecause of thatbecause of thisconsequentlyderivation

Example

More examples

"He returned to the country whence he came."

Etymology

From Middle English whennes, from Old English hwanon (with adverbial genitive -s), related to hwonne (whence when). Analyzable as when + -s.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.