What's the difference between whether and whither?

Whether


Definition:

  • (pron.) Which (of two); which one (of two); -- used interrogatively and relatively.
  • (conj.) In case; if; -- used to introduce the first or two or more alternative clauses, the other or others being connected by or, or by or whether. When the second of two alternatives is the simple negative of the first it is sometimes only indicated by the particle not or no after the correlative, and sometimes it is omitted entirely as being distinctly implied in the whether of the first.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Here we have asked whether protection from blood-borne antigens afforded by the blood-brain barrier is related to the lack of MHC expression.
  • (2) This study was undertaken to determine whether the survival of Hispanic patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck was different from that of Anglo-American patients.
  • (3) We determined whether serological investigations can assist to distinguish between chronic idiopathic autoimmune thrombocytopenia (cAITP) and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia in patients at risk to develop systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); 82 patients were seen in this institution for the evaluation of immune thrombocytopenia.
  • (4) Whether hen's egg yolk can be used as a sperm motility stimulant in the treatment of such conditions as asthenospermia and oligospermia is subjected for further study.
  • (5) The present study examined whether the lack of chronic hemodynamic effects of ANP in control rats was due to changes in vascular reactivity to the peptide.
  • (6) Because many wnt genes are also expressed in the lung, we have examined whether the wnt family member wnt-2 (irp) plays a role in lung development.
  • (7) A remarkable deterioration of prognosis with increasing age rises the question whether treatment with cytotoxic drugs should be tried in patients more than 60 years old.
  • (8) We investigated whether these peptides also affect the sleep EEG in humans when given intravenously by comparing polysomnographically the effects of four boluses of (1) placebo, (2) 50 micrograms GHRH or (3) 50 micrograms SRIF administered at 22.00, 23.00, 24.00 and 1.00 h to 7 male controls.
  • (9) In experiments performed to determine whether PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis induced by TRH may have been caused by the elevation of [Ca2+]i, the following results were obtained: the effect of TRH to decrease the level of PtdIns(4,5)P2 was not reproduced by the calcium ionophore A23187 or by membrane depolarization with 50 mM K+; the calcium antagonist TMB-8 did not inhibit the TRH-induced decrease in PtdIns(4,5)P2; and, most importantly, inhibition by EGTA of the elevation of [Ca2+]i did not inhibit the TRH-induced decrease in PtdIns(4,5)P2.
  • (10) To determine whether or not the glycan moieties in hTPO play a role in the disease-associated epitopes in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, radiolabeled recombinant hTPO was immunoprecipitated after digestion with N-glycanase.
  • (11) Many problems at the macroscopic level require clarification of how an animal uses a compartment of suite of muscles and whether morphological differences reflect functional ones.
  • (12) Friend erythroleukemia cells were induced to differentiate by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and hexamethylene-bis-acetamide (HBMA) in order to investigate whether their lipid characteristics, common to other systems of transformed cells, revert to a normal differentiation pattern.
  • (13) When you have been out for a month you need to prepare properly before you come back.” Pellegrini will make his own assessment of Kompany’s fitness before deciding whether to play him in the Bournemouth game, which he is careful to stress may not be the foregone conclusion the league table might suggest.
  • (14) The Hamilton-Wentworth regional health department was asked by one of its municipalities to determine whether the present water supply and sewage disposal methods used in a community without piped water and regional sewage disposal posed a threat to the health of its residents.
  • (15) We investigated the incidence of skin cancer among patients who received high doses of PUVA to see whether such incidence increased.
  • (16) There is, however, conflicting evidence as to whether squamous cell NPCs are also EBV-associated.
  • (17) One of the most interesting aspects of the shadow cabinet elections, not always readily interpreted because of the bizarre process of alliances of convenience, is whether his colleagues are ready to forgive and forget his long years as Brown's representative on earth.
  • (18) The authors describe the special medical expertise of the psychiatrist and define 11 indicators, such as a patient's need for new psychotropic medication or the presence of symptoms requiring medical or laboratory procedures, that can be used to determine whether psychiatric expertise is needed.
  • (19) It was not clear whether Mn2+ acted at the presynaptic membrane, the postsynaptic membrane or both.
  • (20) Thus it is unclear how a language learner determines whether German even has a regular plural, and if so what form it takes.

Whither


Definition:

  • (adv.) To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou?
  • (adv.) To what or which place; -- used relatively.
  • (adv.) To what point, degree, end, conclusion, or design; whereunto; whereto; -- used in a sense not physical.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) (It belonged to Iain Watters , and he presented his ruined pudding to the judges from the murky depths of a fliptop bin, whither he had cast it in a fury; this event was even more scandalous than the custard theft of 2013 – don’t ask.)
  • (2) But whither North Carolina goes, so goes the rest of the nation.
  • (3) Even at a time when other aspects of foreign policy – such as over Iran – are breaking with blind whither-thou-goest Atlanticism, the ossified Orwellian terms of the nuclear discussion go unchallenged by government and opposition alike.
  • (4) Retrospective analysis of clinical cases observed for three years with respect to the appearance of the fundus and visual acuity was conducted to evaluate the effect of photocoagulation therapy on macular edema in relation to whither diabetic retinopathy was accompanied by, focal or cystoid, macular edema.
  • (5) There has been some uncertainty in relation to my title 'Whither the professions?'
  • (6) Whither Mr Whicher Paddy Considine’s return for the first of a brace of two-part stories in ITV’s The Suspicions of Mr Whicher could only draw 2.6 million viewers, a 13.7% share, between 9.05pm and 11pm.
  • (7) Effective pumping requires that the active transporter binds the pumped substrate, at high affinity, realized at the "whence side" (from which pumping takes place) and, at low affinity, at the "whither side" (to which pumping takes place).
  • (8) It was called “Whither B’Tselem?” “They thought about all the possible things B’Tselem could do once Israel doesn’t control the West Bank.
  • (9) They certainly shouldn’t be subjected to policies that will see them whither and die.
  • (10) However, the concreteness of the phone worker was not correlated with whither the scheduled appointment was kept by the caller.
  • (11) I am not by nature,” he wrote, “a ‘Whither America?’ man.” Only once did he try to encapsulate his own attitude to life, in a magazine called Living Philosophy.
  • (12) Yet if we strip the language down to what there is a "real need" for, whither poetry?