Where

Part of speech: adverb, conjunction, pronoun

Pronunciation: /wɛəɹ/

Definitions

1. A term used to ask about or indicate the place, location, or position in which something exists or occurs
2. A word employed to inquire about or specify the place or position of an object or event
3. A term used to identify or question the specific location or place related to an object or event

Etymology: Where is one of the oldest question words in English, and it has barely changed its shape in over a thousand years. Its Old English form, "hwǣr", was built from the same stem that gives us "who", "what", "which" and "when", all of which begin with the "wh" sound that marks them as question words. The stem traces back to a reconstructed ancestor in Proto-Indo-European, the prehistoric language behind much of Europe and South Asia, whose interrogative root *kʷ- was the foundation for asking about people, things and places alike. The grammar of "where" also explains why it sits so comfortably in three word classes. As an adverb it asks about location, as in "where are you?" As a conjunction it introduces a clause, as in "stay where you are." As a pronoun it stands in for a place, as in "the place where we met." Each use keeps the original sense of "at what place," which is exactly what the Old English compound was built to express.

Synonyms: location, place, site, spot, area