whereabouts
Americanadverb
conjunction
noun
adverb
-
Also: whereabout. at what approximate location or place; where
whereabouts are you?
-
obsolete about or concerning which
noun
Etymology
Origin of whereabouts
1400–50; late Middle English wheraboutes, equivalent to Middle English wheraboute ( see whereabout) + -s -s 1
Explanation
Your whereabouts are the place you are right now. When your dog gets lost, your family might form a search party to discover his whereabouts. Officially, the noun whereabouts can be treated as singular or plural, but it's more common to use it as plural. News stories about escaped prisoners or criminals on the run often mention that their whereabouts are unknown, and parents who like to keep tabs on a teenager's whereabouts sometimes buy her a cell phone. The earliest use of whereabouts, one sometimes used today, was as an interrogative adverb: "Whereabouts will you be this afternoon?"
Vocabulary lists containing whereabouts
Dear Martin
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"Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner
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Charlotte's Web
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Key also might be asked about the whereabouts of new Test coach Stephen Fleming, who does not take up his post until the winter.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Once Baptiste's disappearance was reported in the media last weekend, BBC Sport began investigating his whereabouts.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
“The invisible narrator was the formal term for the disembodied speaker,” Mr. Doherty tells us, but audiences—“uncertain initially of the whereabouts of the visitation—called it the ‘ghost voice.’”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Officials were vague about George W. Bush’s whereabouts immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, and Bill Clinton took an unmarked plane from India to Pakistan in 2000.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Indeed, Phineas Nigellus inadvertently emphasized this fact by slipping in leading questions about Harry and Hermione’s whereabouts.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
