Whereas

How to spell whereas

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce whereas

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does whereas mean?

1. conjunctionUsed to introduce a statement that contrasts with or is in opposition to another statement.

Whereas in a sentence

• The older model used a battery, whereas the new one runs on mains power.

• Some staff prefer working from home, whereas others want to return to the office.

Where does whereas come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Whereas is a transparent compound, built in Middle English by simply fusing the words 'where' and 'as'. The first element traces back to Old English hwǣr, meaning 'in what place', part of the same family of question words as 'who' and 'what'; the second comes from Old English eallswā, literally 'all so' or 'just so', which wore down over time into the small word 'as'. When the two were welded together in the 1300s, the original sense was something close to 'in a case in which', a meaning that survives in stiff legal documents where each clause begins 'Whereas the parties agree...'. From that legalistic 'considering that' use, the word drifted into its everyday meaning of marking a contrast, much like 'while'. Because it is just two familiar words run together, the only real spelling trap is remembering that it is one solid word with no space and no extra letters.

How the word is built

• where (from Old English hwǣr: in what place)
• as (from Old English eallswā: just so) joined into a single conjunction