# whence

Pronunciation: say "WENS" /ʍɛns/

## Adverb

1. From where, or from which place or source; used in questions and in clauses that point back to a place or source. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Used to mean from where, or from what place or thing.
   - _The refugees longed to return to the valley whence they had fled._
   - _Whence comes this sudden interest in poetry?_

## Conjunction

2. Used to introduce a result or conclusion that follows from a fact just stated. *(literary)*
   - Simple: Used to show that something is the result of what was just said.
   - _The bridge had been closed for repairs, whence the long detour through the hills._
   - _The old pump kept failing, whence the constant flooding in the basement._

## Origin

Old English hwanon, with the adverbial genitive ending -s added, became Middle English whennes. It is related to hwonne, the source of English when, so the word can be analyzed as when plus -s.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/whence (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).