Whither or wither?
whither is an adverb meaning “To what place; where”; wither is a verb meaning “To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water”. Use whither as an adverb and wither as a verb (whither is also a verb: “To cause (someone) to hurry; to hasten, to hurry”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wither is about 3.2 times as common as whither.
What is the difference between whither and wither?
| whither | wither | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb, noun, verb | verb, adverb, prefix, noun |
| Meaning | To what place; where To what (future) cause, condition or state, reason, etc.; where, where next; also (obsolete) to what extent; how far A place to which someone or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something moves | To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water To cause to shrivel or dry up To go against, resist; oppose |
| Example | Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer? | The flowers began to wither in the hot sun without enough water |
| Forms | none | withers, withering, withered |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwɪðəː/ [ˈwɪðəː] /ˈʍɪðəː/ | /ˈwɪðə/ [ˈwɪðə] /ˈwɪðɚ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | 1.0 times per million words |
Sources: whither and wither 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 whither and wither
whither
- 1
To what place; where
Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer?
- 2
A place to which someone or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something moves
- 3
ScotlandUKTo cause (someone) to hurry; to hasten, to hurry
- 4
ScotlandUKA state of rushed action; a haste, a hurry; also, a state of anger or excitement
- 5
To what (future) cause, condition or state, reason, etc.; where, where next; also (obsolete) to what extent; how far
- 6
ScotlandUKTo throw (something) forcefully; to hurl; also, to beat, to thrash
- 7
ScotlandUKA forceful blow or hit
- 8
To which place; also (after a noun denoting a place) to which
wither
- 1
To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water
The flowers began to wither in the hot sun without enough water
- 2
To go against, resist; oppose
- 3
ScotlandUKAgainst, in opposition to; in return; counter-; contrary (to); in the opposite direction (of or to); backwards
- 4
To cause to shrivel or dry up
- 5
To lose vigour or power; to languish; to waste away; to pass away
- 6
To become helpless due to emotion
- 7
To make helpless due to emotion
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, whither or wither?
whither appears about once in every 3 million words; wither 1.0 times per million words.
whither about once in every 3 million wordswither 1.0 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 whither vs wither?
“whither vs wither” is searched about 40 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wither vs whither”, “whither or wither”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.