Wordcyclopedia | English | by what ? whence

by Preposition

— near or next to. The mailbox is by the bus stop. — at some time before (the given time). Be back by ten o'clock! — if something is done by somebody, it is done through their action The matter was decided by the chairman. The boat was swamped by the water. He was protected by his body armour. — if something is created by somebody, they are the creator, author, etc. There are many well-known plays by William Shakespeare. — shows how someone does something I avoided the guards by moving only when they weren't looking. — using the rules or logic of. I sorted the items by category. — with a change of. In this case, by shows how much something has changed. Our stock is up by ten percent. — shows how slowly, or how quickly, someone does something (used in the form "X by X" or "by Xs") We went through the book page by page. We crawled forward by inches. — If you multiply mathx/math by mathy/math, you multiply mathx/math × mathy/math. Five multiplied by seven is 35. — If you divide mathx/math by mathy/math, you find how many mathy/maths are in mathx/math. 35 divided by seven is five.

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what Pronoun

— What is used to ask for information about things. What did you see? What do you mean? — What is used to add a clause with more information. I don't know what you mean. I'll tell you what to do. I'll see what I can do to help. — What is used when you want to describe something instead of naming it. Take what you can find. Can I see what you did? I could change it if that's what you want.

what Determinative

— What is used to ask about the member(s) of a group. What book did you buy? — What is used to add a clause to identify the member(s) of a group. I don't know what problems you mean. I'll tell you what button to push. I'll see what food I can give.

what Adjective

— used to show that you feel strongly about something. What a great book this is!

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whence Preposition

— from where Whence did you come? It grows naturally in the West Indies, whence the Mr. Miller sent me the seeds. This is the stone whence he pulled the sword. Tell me the town from whence they came.

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