Whenever

//wəˈnɛvə// adv, conj, slang

adv, conj, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    When ever: emphatic form of when. dated, interrogative

    "Whenever will I find time to finish that jigsaw?"

  2. 2
    At any time. colloquial

    "Feel free to visit whenever."

Conjunction
  1. 1
    At any time that.

    "Visit whenever you want to."

  2. 2
    At the (single) time that, no matter when.

    "Tomorrow I'll get up whenever the sun rises."

  3. 3
    Every time that.

    "Whenever he has a pair of aces, his eyelids twitch."

  4. 4
    Regardless of the time that.

    "Income must be reported in the period in which it is earned, whenever payment is actually received."

  5. 5
    When. Ireland, US, nonstandard, regional

    "Whenever I was a child, I lived in Arkansas."

Synonyms

All synonyms
anytimeat any timeat what timeat whatever timeat whichat which time

Example

More examples

"Whenever I find something I like, it's too expensive."

Etymology

From Middle English whan evere, whanne ever, whanne evere, whener, when ever; equivalent to when + ever.

Related phrases

whenever one turns around

More for "whenever"

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