why

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“
He made a sudden passionate movement towards her Cynthia, in God's name why--why He laid his hands on her shoulders.

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. adverb For what purpose, reason, or cause; with what intention, justification, or motive: Why is the door shut? Why do birds sing?
  2. conjunction The reason, cause, or purpose for which: I know why you left.
  3. conjunction Usage Problem On account of which; for which: "The reason why [regular verbs] are called regular is that we can predict what all the other three forms are” (Randolph Quirk).
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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • That's why, Jimmie, these last two years and eight months, if not for what I was hoping for us, why--why--I--why, on your twenty a week, Jimmie, there's nobody could run a flat like I could. —  Americans All Stories of American Life of To-Day
  • If he could he could do no more than astonish and move us, and he does that now, and the why is as deep a mystery as that would be So far is it from being only a degrading superstition in those who believe that mortals like themselves can predict the future, that it seems, on the contrary ennobling. —  The Gypsies
  • If you tell one lie--why, that is the end of you! —  Plotting in Pirate Seas
  • Miss Phyllis Rivers--why, your very name's a prophecy!--I formally invite you to take a trip with me in my motor-boat. —  The Chauffeur and the Chaperon
  • Houses and mosques all of the same materials as these reefs we are now coming to Madrepore--why, that is a sort of coral--isn't it Yes, it is coral That's queer though. —  For Fortune and Glory A Story of the Soudan War
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English hwȳ; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English whie; from Middle English why, whi, hwi, wi (also in the phrase for whi), from Anglo-Saxon hwī, hwy¯, hwig = Old Saxon hwī = Old High German hwiu, wiu, hiu = Icelandic hvī = Swedish Danish hvi = Gothic (Moesogothic) hwē, why, for what (sc. reason); instrumental case of Anglo-Saxon hwā, Goth, hwas, etc., who: see who, and cf. how.
 

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/hwai/
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