“Where is the cat?” - What part of speech is the word “where”?

Question

In the sentence, "Where is the cat?", what part of speech is the word "where"?

Frankly, I think no one knows. You can argue it's an adverb, you can argue that it's a conjunction, you can argue that it's a noun. — Hot Licks, Feb 3 '17 at 4:15

Aziz · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-02 05:22:43Z

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"Where" is an adverb telling us 'at what location.'

answered Mar 2 '16 at 5:22

Aziz

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rogermue · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-02 06:02:46Z

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Wikipedia uses interrogative word or simply question-word. This word class is not contained in the traditional list of word classes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogative_word

answered Mar 2 '16 at 5:55

rogermue

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From that, I guess it would be an "interrogative pro-adverb." – Der Übermensch Mar 2 '16 at 6:38
@H3br3wHamm3r81: or maybe more of an "interrogative pro-prepositional phrase". Relevant: Is “now” a “preposition”? – sumelic Feb 3 '17 at 4:22

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