Weather or whether?
weather is a noun meaning “The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including…”; whether is a conjunction meaning “Introduces a simple indirect question (without a correlative)”. Use weather as a noun and whether as a conjunction. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) whether is about 2.8 times as common as weather.
What is the difference between weather and whether?
| weather | whether | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, verb | conjunction, determiner, pronoun |
| Meaning | The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc Unpleasant or destructive atmospheric conditions, and their effects Facing towards the flow of a fluid, usually air | Introduces a simple indirect question (without a correlative) Indicates doubt between possibilities (usually with correlative or) |
| Example | What's the weather like today? | Whether we'll be on time I'm unsure |
| Forms | weathers | none |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwɛðə/ /ˈwɛðɚ/ /ˈweðə/ | /ˈwɛðə(ɹ)/ /ˈʍɛðə(ɹ)/ |
| In writing | 74 times per million words | 209 times per million words |
Sources: weather and whether in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of weather and whether
weather
- 1
The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc
What's the weather like today?
- 2
Facing towards the flow of a fluid, usually air
weather side, weather helm
- 3
To expose to the weather, or show the effects of such exposure, or to withstand such effects
- 4
Unpleasant or destructive atmospheric conditions, and their effects
Wooden garden furniture must be well oiled as it is continuously exposed to weather
- 5
To sustain the trying effect of; to bear up against and overcome; to endure; to resist
April 18, 1850, Frederick William Robertson, An Address Delivered to the Members of the Working Man's Institute You will weather the difficulties yet
- 6
The direction from which the wind is blowing; used attributively to indicate the windward side
- 7
To break down, of rocks and other materials, under the effects of exposure to rain, sunlight, temperature, and air
- 8
A situation
whether
- 1
Introduces a simple indirect question (without a correlative)
Whether we'll be on time I'm unsure
- 2
Indicates doubt between possibilities (usually with correlative or)
He chose the correct answer, but whether by luck or by skill I don't know
- 3
Introduces a disjunctive adverbial clause qualifying the main clause (with correlative or)
He's coming, whether you like it or not
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, weather or whether?
weather appears 74 times per million words; whether 209 times per million words.
weather 74 times per million wordswhether 209 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search weather vs whether?
“weather vs whether” is searched about 27,100 times a month on Google and 590 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“whether vs weather”, “weather or whether”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.