Whether

Part of speech: conjunction

Pronunciation: /ˈwɛðə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A conjunction used to introduce alternatives or express doubt between two or more possibilities
2. A conjunction that presents alternatives or expresses uncertainty between varying choices or options
3. A subordinating word that signals a choice between two or more possibilities or conditions

Etymology: "Whether" started life as a question word, not a conjunction. Its Old English ancestor "hwæþer" meant "which of two," and it was built as a comparative from the Proto-Germanic root behind "who." In that sense it asked which of a pair was meant, much like "which" does today, so the idea of choosing between two options was already built into it from the start. The word then moved from asking which of two things to introducing the alternatives themselves. In Middle English, "whether" could link two options in a clause, so "whether this or that" carried the same logic it does now. The later use of "whether" to introduce an indirect yes-or-no question grew out of that choosing function. Its relatives show the same two-way split. German "weder" survives as "neither," while Swedish "var" means "each, every" and Icelandic "hvor" means "each of two." The shared core is the notion of one of two, and English kept it in a single conjunction.

Synonyms: if, regardless of