Modern English → Old English
Old English word for why
6 headwords match “why”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The 6 strongest follow; hwy ranks first.
-
why — why
- opens the headword's definition
-
why — why
- opens the headword's definition
-
why — why
- opens the headword's definition
-
why — why
- opens the headword's definition
-
why — what
- has a full inflection table
Paradigm summary strong nominative singular masculine hwæt strong nominative singular feminine hwatu, hwato strong nominative singular neuter hwæt strong accusative singular masculine hwætne strong accusative singular feminine hwate strong accusative singular neuter hwæt -
why — but how?, why
- appears in the definition
How this ranking works
Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “why” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.
| The English word opens the headword's definition | +10 |
| It appears later in the first definition | +6 |
| It appears in any definition | +3 |
| It is in the headword's links | +2 |
| It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence) | +9 |
| The headword has an inflection table | +3 |
| Part of speech is a proper noun | −5 |
| Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy) | −3 |
| The headword is an alternative form | −6 |
| The first definition is longer than three words | −2 |
A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.
Not one of these?
The match may be a different sense of “why”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.
Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0