wherewithal

English

Etymology

where +‎ withal

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛə.wɪ.ðɔːl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛɚ.wɪ.ðɔl/, /ˈwɛɚ.wɪ.θɔl/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛɚ.wɪ.ðɑl/, /ˈwɛɚ.wɪ.θɑl/

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Noun

wherewithal (countable and uncountable, plural wherewithals)

1. The ability and means required to accomplish some task.

   I would like to help your project, but I do not have the wherewithal.

   • 1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier, book II, translation of original by Dominique Bouhours:

     Justice was sold at the tribunals, and the most enormous crimes escaped from punishment, when the criminals had wherewithal to corrupt their judges.

   • 1954, Edward Eager, Half Magic:

     Big Council meeting! At the bookshop in twenty minutes. Carfare will be refunded. Can we scrape together the wherewithal?

   • 1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 67:

     "I just can't imagine," Philip said, "having that kind of self-knowledge, that kind of...wherewithal at fifteen. […] "

   • 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian‎:

     […] A single slice of this could leave you supine in front of the Queen's speech without even the wherewithal to reach for the remote control.

   • 2019, John O’Connell, Bowie's Bookshelf, →ISBN:

     Although Emma comes to realise she's trapped in a kind of hell, married to a dullard she despises, she lacks the intellectual wherewithal to plot a breakout more sophisticated than consorting with idiots such as Leon and Rodolphe.

   • 2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 8, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020:

     In political economic terms, the pandemic worked to intensify a development that the decline in the neoliberal order had already set in motion: namely, a conviction that government was the only institution with the wherewithal to address severe economic and social hardship.

Translations

Adverb

wherewithal (not comparable)

1. (archaic) In what way; how.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 119:9:

     Wherewithall shall a yong man cleanse his way? by taking heede thereto according to thy word.

2. (archaic) By means of which.

   Synonyms: whereby, wherewith

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 41, column 2:

     Rich. Northumberland, thou Ladder wherewithall / The mounting Bullingbrooke aſcends my Throne

Translations

Related terms

• wherewith
• withal

See also