WHERE | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

Meaning of where in English

where
adverb, conjunction
uk
/weər/ us
/wer/
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A1
to, at, or in what place:
Where does he live?
"I put it on your desk." "Where? I can't see it."
Where are we going?
Now where did I put my glasses?
Where's the party being held?
Could you tell me where Barker Drive is, please?
Where did you put my umbrella?
I've left my keys somewhere and I don't know where.
You found my diary - where on earth was it?
I've been meaning to ask you where you get your hair cut.
Bradford, where Bren comes from, has a lot of good curry restaurants.
She lived in Rome for a couple of years, where she taught English.
You see where Mira is standing? Well, he's behind her.
I like to have him next to me where I can keep an eye on him.
I read it somewhere - I don't know where (= in which book, newspaper, etc.).
B2
used when referring to a particular stage in a process or activity:
You reach a point in any project where you just want to get the thing finished.
I've reached the stage where I just don't care any more.
in what situation:
You're not available on the 12th and Andrew can't make the 20th - so where does that leave us?
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
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Grammar

Relative pronouns: when, where and why
In informal language, we often use where, when or why to introduce defining relative clauses instead of at which, on which or for which. …
Where
Where is a wh-word. We use where to ask questions, as a conjunction and to introduce relative clauses. …
Where as a question word
We can use where to ask for information about place: …
Emphatic questions with wherever and where on earth
We can ask emphatic questions using wherever or where on earth to express shock or surprise. We stress ever and earth: …
Where as a conjunction
We use where as a conjunction meaning ‘in the place that’ or ‘in situations that’. The clause with where is a subordinate clause and needs a main clause to complete its meaning. If the where clause comes before the main clause, we use a comma: …
Where as a relative pronoun
We can use where as a relative pronoun: …

Idioms

be where it's at
know/see where someone is coming from
(Definition of where from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

where | American Dictionary

where
conjunction, adverb [ not gradable ]
us
/hweər, weər/

where conjunction, adverb [not gradable] (WHAT PLACE)

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to, at, or in what place:
Where did she go to college?
I forget where I put the car keys.
I read it somewhere – I don’t know where (= the exact place).
Where can be used to mean at what stage:
You reach a point where you just want to get the thing finished.

Idioms

where someone is coming from
where to turn
(Definition of where from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of where

where
We have had fine words, but where's the beef?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
I am tempted to ask: where's the beef?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Now where's your slot coming from?
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
In both cases we would expect experience - especially portfolio experience - to increase in countries where portfolios are most valued as a means to affect policy.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you thought much about this?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Where would you place yourself on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 means the left and 10 means the right?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you thought about this?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In cases where there is a long-term need for interaction within an industry or community, standard ontologies will emerge around the consensus about the domain.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Horling et al. (2003) describe a distributed sensor network application where a matrix organization is used to address a resource allocation problem.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Conventional equality may be systematized by developing a theory of setoids, where a setoid is a set together with an equivalence relation.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Parentheses are only added where needed, ignoring associativity.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Evaluating schedules in parallel is one major difference from the evaluation strategy approach, where all evaluation is done under control of the strategy.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the place where you live, what is the best number of children to have?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
A 'vanishing point' is 'the point of a perspective drawing where two straight lines, that would in reality be 25 parallel, converge instead'.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Where have they come from, what are they for, and where could they go?
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of where
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of where?
 
A1,B2

Translations of where

in Chinese (Traditional)
去哪裡, 在哪裡, 處於某種階段…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
去哪里, 在哪里, 处于某种阶段…
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in Spanish
dónde, en el que, donde…
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in Portuguese
onde, aonde, no qual / na qual…
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in Urdu
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in Telugu
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in Italian
कुठे / ज्या ठिकाणी - त्या जागी, जिथे/तिथे - एखाद्या प्रक्रियेतील विशिष्ट टप्प्याचा संदर्भ देण्यासाठी…
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どこに（へ、を、で）, ～（する）ところに（へ、を）, どこ…
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nerede, nereye, nereden…
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où, là où, à l’endroit où…
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on…
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waar…
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அங்கே, அங்கு, அல்லது அந்த இடத்தில்…
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कहाँ, जहाँ, जहाँ तक…
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કઈ જગ્યાએ, માં, પર…
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hvor…
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var, vart, där…
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di manakah, di mana…
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wo(-hin, -her), (da) wo…
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hvor, der hvor, der (hvor)…
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کہاں, جہاں, جہاں (ایک خاص مرحلے کے سباق میں)…
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де, куди…
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где?, где, куда…
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ఏ స్థలానికి /ఏ స్థలంలో /ఏ స్థలం వద్ద, ఒక కార్యం లేక ఒక ప్రక్రియలో ఒక నిర్దిష్ట దశ గురించి చెప్పే సందర్భంలో వాడిది…
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أيْن, حَيْث…
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কোথায় / যেখানে, পর্যায় / স্তরে…
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kam, kde, odkud…
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ke mana, di mana, dari mana…
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ที่ไหน, ที่ซึ่ง…
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ở đâu, nơi mà…
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gdzie, który, dokąd…
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어디에, -한 곳…
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dove, (là) dove…
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when-issued share
when-issued stock
whence
whenever
where
where has/have something gone? phrase
where someone is coming from idiom
where the action is phrase
where there's a will there's a way idiom
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