whichth

From which +‎ -th. Equivalent constructions are standard in many of the world’s languages.

• IPA^(key): /wɪtʃθ/, /ʍɪtʃθ/

whichth (not comparable)

1. (rare, nonstandard) Which ordinal number.

   Whichth president was Abraham Lincoln?

   Whichth' planet from the sun is the earth?

   • 1911, The Druggists Circular: A Practical Journal of Pharmacy and General Business Organ for Druggists, volume 55, The Druggists Circular, page 441:

     And but one argument arose, it was over this abstruse astronomical zodiacal problem: If the first "Jamieson Day" was celebrated in 1898, whichth "Jamieson Day" do we celebrate this year, the thirteenth or the fourteenth? and whichth anniversary is it?

   • 1975, Tribune, Ceylon News Service, page 4:

     […] knocking the stuffing out of each other for goodness knows the whichth time this year […]

   • 1992, Jan Seale, Airlift: Short Stories, Texas Christian University Press, →ISBN, page 4, →ISBN:

     […] lay back in the lounger, checking the mantel clock for the he-didn't-know-whichth time. Four-forth-five.

   • 2012, Richard G. Heck, Reading Frege's Grundgesetze, OUP Oxford, →ISBN, page 223, →ISBN:

     But the use of ordinals to answer questions of the form, "The which^th member of the ordering?" is as much one of their distinguishing characteristics as the use of cardinals to answer questions of the form "How many?" is one of theirs.

• nth