whereby
- 1By means of which something is done or comes about; introducing the method or arrangement involved.
The two nations signed a treaty whereby disputed waters would be jointly patrolled.
The school adopted a policy whereby students could retake any failed exam once.
Note
The living use almost always follows a noun that names a method or arrangement: the means whereby, a method whereby, an approach whereby. Shylock already speaks of "the means whereby I live" in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and twentieth-century writing on toys and schools uses the same pattern. A quick test is whether "by which" fits. If it does not, the sentence probably needs another word.
- 2In which; used to refer to a place, situation, or circumstance in which something exists or happens.
She recalled the quiet village whereby her childhood summers had slowly passed.
It was a strange dream whereby everyone around her spoke only in riddles.
Similarwhere
Note
Here the word drifts from means to place and stands in for where or in which. That drift is why this use counts as nonstandard. After a noun of place or setting, such as a village or a dream, it jars for many readers, and where or in which is the safe choice. After system or arrangement the line blurs with the "by which" use, since a system can be both setting and means.
- 3By what means or in which direction something occurs; how.
Note
The question form shows the word's two parts most clearly: where- asks the question, and by- asks after the route or the means. "Whereby goest thou?" asks which way someone is traveling. This use is obsolete. Modern English puts the same question with how or which way, and the word now survives only as a relative, in the "by which" use.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from 'where' combined with 'by'.