whichever

US/wɪt͡ʃˈɛvɚ/

pronounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,672 of 15,258neutral

Whichever means any one of them that you choose. The choice is open and the result is the same.

It works as a pronoun and a determiner, so take whichever you like and whichever route you take are both correct. It differs from whatever by implying a limited set, since whichever assumes you are choosing from options already in view. There is a common fixed use in whichever comes first and whichever way you look at it, both of which close off an argument rather than opening one.

Definitions of whichever

1pronounwhicheverAny one from a set, chosen freely.B1+
“Take whichever you prefer.”

Where it comes from

From whiche ever, whiche evere, which ever, which evere; equivalent to which + -ever.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 34 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

whichever in the wild

Such meetings are confidential, under the principle of "Cabinet confidentiality", and Ministers must agree to present a united front based on whichever decision is taken.
Executive Council of New Brunswick
Yahoo! offered a $25,000 prize to whichever college or university that got the greatest number of alumni to sign up before December 31, 2007.
Yahoo Kickstart
The race has been held for a duration of 10 hours since 2014, having previously been held for either 1,000 miles or 10 hours, whichever came first.
Petit Le Mans
If no winner was chosen, the General Court voted to resolve the election, usually in favor of whichever party held the majority of seats in the General Court.
1839 Massachusetts legislature

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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