Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. From where; from what place: Whence came this traveler?
- adv. From what origin or source: Whence comes this splendid feast?
- conj. Out of which place; from or out of which.
- conj. By reason of which; from which: The dog was coal black from nose to tail, whence the name Shadow.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- From what place? from what source, origin, or antecedents?
- From what place; from which place or source.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. From what place; hence, from what or which source, origin, antecedent, premise, or the like; how; -- used interrogatively.
- adv. From what or which place, source, material, cause, etc.; the place, source, etc., from which; -- used relatively.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. from what place, source, or cause
Etymologies
- Middle English whennes : whenne, whence (from Old English hwanon; see kwo- in Indo-European roots) + -es, genitive sing. suff.; see -s3.
Examples
“And hence assumption determines the term whence and the term whither; for assumption means a taking to oneself from another.”
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
“The idea of from is included in the word whence -- therefore it is unnecessary to say "From whence.”
The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing A Manual of Ready Reference
“In St. Benedict we find the name vespera which has prevailed, whence the French word vêpres and the English vespers.”
“Aimeri de Narbonne, from Almaric, [Footnote: A metathesis of Amalric, which is found in Anglo-Saxon.] whence Ital.”
“From whence is your good ship, and whither is she bound? ”
“Of whence is your fair ship, and whither is she bound? ”
“So mundus in Latin, whence Augustine's oxymoron, "O munde immunde!”
“The first toast at every festival here was drunk in his honour, and, besides the first of May, one day in every week was held sacred to him, and, from his Saxon name, Woden, was called Woden's day, whence the English word "Wednesday" has been derived.”
“They are also occasionally seen to the southward among the Catskills, where they were formerly so numerous as to have given a name to the stream and the mountain whence it flows.”
“Scripture, which is designed not to give dogmatic formularies, but to be the fountain whence all such formularies are to be drawn according to the exigencies of the several churches and ages.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘whence’.
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Archaic
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 327 more...
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Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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Adverbia
A long list of adverbs, beginning with full-drive. Someone has to list them.
Read some sniping and some informative commentary about adverbs here.
Reesetee's list Conjunctive Adv...full-drive, portentously, unlawfully, legally, heterogeneously, consumingly, clancularly, inconsolably, prepositionally, retrogressively, symptomatically, decrepitly and 2243 more...
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Whence
Definitions with a whence in them.
girasol, spider, Good King Whenceslas, Æ, whence, narwhal, lithophyse, henbane, gamboge, cirripedia, thermifugine, zietrisikite and 37 more...
brtom Lady Sneerwell. The paragraphs, you say, Mr. Snake, were all inserted?
Snake. They were, madam; and, as I copied them myself in a feigned hand, there can be no suspicion whence they came.
Sheridan, School for Scandal Jan 5, 2008
patiomensch Any motion verb would work, methinks. "Whence it flew/flowed/drifted" and on and on and on and on. Apr 17, 2007
seanahan Good king Whence is Laus? After he punched me I whenced? Apr 16, 2007
uselessness Is this word ever followed by anything other than "it came"? Apr 16, 2007
patiomensch It makes me angry when people say "from whence." ARRR!!! Apr 14, 2007