Definitions for whence
ʰwɛns, wɛnswhence

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. whenceadverb

   from what place, source, or cause

Wiktionary(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. whenceadverb

   From where; from which place or source.

   Whence came I?

2. whenceconjunction

   From where.

3. whenceconjunction

   From which.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Whenceadverb

   Etymology: Formed from where by the same analogy with hence from here.

   1. From what place.2. From what person.

   Whence, feeble nature! shall we summon aid,
   If by our pity and our pride betray’d? Matthew Prior.

   3. From which premises.

   Their practice was to look no farther before them than the next line; whence it will follow, that they can drive to no certain point. Dryden.

   4. From which place or person.

   Grateful to acknowledge whence his good descends. John Milton.

   5. For which cause.

   Recent urine, distilled with a fixed alkali, is turned into an alkaline nature; whence alkaline salts, taken into a human body, have the power of turning its benign salts into fiery and volatile. John Arbuthnot, on Aliments.

   6. From what source.

   I have shewn whence the understanding may get all the ideas it has. John Locke.

   7. From Whence. A vitious mode of speech.

   From whence he views, with his black-lidded eye,
   Whatso the heaven in his wide vault contains. Edmund Spenser.

   To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
   His mansion, and his titles, in a place
   From whence himself does fly. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

   8. Of Whence. Another barbarism.

   He ask’d his guide,
   What and of whence was he who press’d the hero’s side? John Dryden, Æn.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Whenceadverb

   from what place; hence, from what or which source, origin, antecedent, premise, or the like; how; -- used interrogatively

2. Whenceadverb

   from what or which place, source, material, cause, etc.; the place, source, etc., from which; -- used relatively

3. Etymology: [OE. whennes, whens (with adverbial s, properly a genitive ending; -- see -wards), also whenne, whanene, AS. hwanan, hwanon, hwonan, hwanone; akin to D. when. See When, and cf. Hence, Thence.]

How to pronounce whence?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say whence in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of whence in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of whence in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of whence in a Sentence

1. Niccolo Machiavelli:

   He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must thereafter fall with the greatest loss.

2. Omar Khayym:

   Into this Universe, and Why not knowing Nor Whence, like Water, willy-nilly flowing And out of it, as Wind along the Waste, I know not Wither, willy-nilly blowing.

3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

   . . . .When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer - say traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep - it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best, and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force them...

4. Joseph Conrad:

   Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.

5. James Arthur Baldwin:

   Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

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