English Explanatory Dictionary

anything

English dictionary entry

Meanings

pron
  1. Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
  2. Expressing an indefinite comparison.
noun
  1. Someone or something of importance.
verb
  1. Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs.
adv
  1. In any way, any extent or any degree.

Pronunciation

/ˈɛn.ɪ.θɪŋ/ /ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-anything.wav en-us-anything.ogg /ˈɪ̟n.i.θɪŋ/ /ˈɛn.i.θiŋ/ /ˈæn.i.θɪŋ/ /ˈen.i.θɪ̝ŋ/

Word forms

anything any thing anythings anythinging anythinged

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Indo-European *h₁oy-no-kós Proto-Germanic *ainagaz Proto-West Germanic *ainag Old English ǣniġ Proto-Indo-European *tenk-? Proto-Indo-European *tenkóm Proto-Germanic *þingą Proto-West Germanic *þing Old English þing Old English aniþing Middle English anything English anything From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.

Synonyms

aught

Related words

anybody anyone anywhere everything nothing something thing

Derived words

anythingarian anything but anything else anything goes anythingism anything is possible anything that moves are you doing anything tomorrow as anything ask me anything don't do anything I wouldn't do if anything like anything not much of anything or anything up to anything
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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