Where's

How to spell where's

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce where's

What does where's mean?

1. otherA contraction of "where is" or "where has", asking or stating the location of something.

Where's in a sentence

• Where's the nearest petrol station from here?

• Nobody could tell me where's the meeting room.

Where does where's come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of "where is" (and sometimes "where has"), built on the question word "where". That word descends from the Old English hwaer, meaning "in or at what place", part of a whole family of question words (hwaet, hwa, hwy) that began with the hw- spelling later flipped to wh- in Middle English. The apostrophe in "where's" marks the swallowed vowel of "is", a written shorthand that became common as English embraced contractions in informal and spoken-style writing. Because it sounds identical to "wears" (the verb) and the older word "wares" (goods for sale), the apostrophe is the only visible clue to its meaning. The trap for writers is not the sound but remembering that this spelling always unpacks into "where is" or "where has", never a plain plural or a verb of clothing.

How the word is built

• where (in what place)
• 's (contracted is or has)

Words that sound like where's

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• wares: Goods or articles offered for sale, especially those displayed by a trader.