why on Earth in English

[Show JSON for post-processed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▼] [Hide JSON for post-processed kaikki.org data shown on this page ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "interjection",
        "head": "why on Earth?"
      },
      "expansion": "why on Earth?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Why on Earth are you pouring vinegar in your drink?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "used to add emphasis to \"why\" when beginning a question."
      ],
      "id": "en-why_on_Earth-en-intj-yUuOW4sW",
      "links": [
        [
          "why",
          "why"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) used to add emphasis to \"why\" when beginning a question."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "why in the world"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "euphemistic"
          ],
          "word": "why the dickens"
        },
        {
          "english": "profane",
          "word": "why in God's name"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "mildly",
            "vulgar"
          ],
          "word": "why the Devil"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "slang",
            "vulgar"
          ],
          "word": "why the fuck"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-why on Earth.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/57/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "why on Earth"
}

[Show JSON for raw wiktextract data ▼] [Hide JSON for raw wiktextract data ▲]

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "interjection",
        "head": "why on Earth?"
      },
      "expansion": "why on Earth?",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Why on Earth are you pouring vinegar in your drink?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "used to add emphasis to \"why\" when beginning a question."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "why",
          "why"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) used to add emphasis to \"why\" when beginning a question."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-why on Earth.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/57/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/En-au-why_on_Earth.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "why in the world"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "euphemistic"
      ],
      "word": "why the dickens"
    },
    {
      "english": "profane",
      "word": "why in God's name"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "mildly",
        "vulgar"
      ],
      "word": "why the Devil"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "slang",
        "vulgar"
      ],
      "word": "why the fuck"
    }
  ],
  "word": "why on Earth"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.

"why on Earth" meaning in English

Interjection