See why and wherefore on Wiktionary
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"text": "Never mind the why and wherefore, / Love can level ranks, and therefore, / Though his lordship's station's mighty / Though stupendous be his brain.",
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"ref": "1888, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “(please specify the page)”, in Auld Licht Idylls, London: Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC:",
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"ref": "1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “First Steps in Education”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, →OCLC, pages 111–112:",
"text": "Those whose nature it is to be rational will instinctively ask why and wherefore, and wrestle with themselves for an answer. But why every Tom, Dick and Harry should have the why and wherefore of the universe rammed into him, and should be allowed to draw the conclusion hence that he is the ideal person and responsible for the universe, I don't know.",
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"ref": "2015 February 16, Vanessa Friedman, “At New York Fashion Week, Whatever Looks Warm Will Work”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-06-17:",
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Download raw JSONL data for why and wherefore meaning in All languages combined (2.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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