Whereby
adverbBy which or through which; used to introduce the method or means by which something happens.
How to spell whereby
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce whereby
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does whereby mean?
- adverbBy which or through which; used to introduce the method or means by which something happens.
Whereby in a sentence
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The contract set up a scheme whereby profits were shared equally.
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They reached an agreement whereby each side would cover its own costs.
Where does whereby come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Whereby is one of a large family of compound adverbs that English built by joining the locative word 'where' to a preposition, alongside its cousins 'whereby', 'wherein', 'whereof', 'wherefore', and 'whereupon'. The first element traces back to Old English 'hwaer', meaning 'in what place' or 'where', a native Germanic word with relatives across the old Germanic languages. The second element is the preposition 'by', from Old English 'bi', which carried senses of nearness and means, as in 'by this method'. Fused together in the medieval period, the compound came to mean 'by which' or 'through which', a tidy single word standing in for a longer relative phrase. It survives today mostly in formal, legal, and administrative writing, where 'an arrangement whereby' feels weightier than 'an arrangement by which'.
How the word is built
- where (in/at which)
- by (means/manner)
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