anything

anything

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈæ.ni.θɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.nɪ.θɪŋ/, /ˈɛ.ni.θɪŋ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.nə.θɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: an‧y‧thing

Etymology 1

From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any +‎ thing.

Pronoun

anything

1. Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; a thing of any kind; something or other.

   Synonym: aught

   I would not do it for anything.

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.

2. (with “as” or “like”) Expressing an indefinite comparison.
   • 1916, Edward S. Moffat, Go Forth and Find, page 81-82:

     Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much as anything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed.

Derived terms

• anythingarian
• anything but
• anything else
• anything goes
• anything that moves
• are you doing anything tomorrow
• as anything
• don't do anything I wouldn't do
• if anything
• like anything
• not much of anything
• not that there's anything wrong with that
• or anything
• up to anything

 

Translations

any thing of any kind

American Sign Language: A@Wrist-PalmUp-A@CenterTrunkhigh-PalmUp 5@SideTrunkhigh-PalmUp-5@SideTrunkhigh-PalmUp Arabic: Moroccan Arabic: أي حاجة‎ (ʔayy ḥāja) Belarusian: што-не́будзь (što-njébudzʹ), нішто́ (ništó) (in negative sentences) Bulgarian: нещо (bg) (nešto), каквото и да е (kakvoto i da e) Catalan: qualsevol cosa, alguna cosa (ca), quelcom (ca), tot (ca), (in negative sentences) res (ca), re (ca) Chamicuro: anaskajneye Cherokee: ᎦᎱᏍᏗ (gahusdi) Chinese: Mandarin: 什麼／什么 (zh) (shénme) Czech: cokoliv (cs) Dutch: iets (nl), alles (nl), wat dan ook Esperanto: io ajn Finnish: mikä (fi), mikä tahansa (fi) French: n’importe quoi (fr), (in negative sentences) rien (fr) Galician: calquera cousa Georgian: ნებისმიერი რამ (nebismieri ram) German: irgendetwas (de), irgendwas (de) Gothic: 𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃𐌷𐌿𐌽 (ainshun) Greek: οτιδήποτε (el) n (otidípote), ό,τι (el) (ó,ti) Hungarian: akármi (hu), bármi (hu) Ido: irgo (io) Irish: aon rud Italian: qualunque cosa, qualsiasi cosa, niente (it) Japanese: 何でも (ja) (なんでも, nandemo) Khmer: អី (ʼəy) Korean: 아무것도 (amugeot-do) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: ھیچ‎ (ku) (hîç) Latin: quidquam Macedonian: било што (bilo što), што било (što bilo), што и да било (što i da bilo) Malay: Jawi: اڤ٢‎ Rumi: apa-apa Maltese: kwalunkwe ħaġa f Manx: nhee erbee Ngazidja Comorian: (in negative sentences) ndrongoo Polish: cokolwiek (pl) n ('whatever'), byle co (pl) n ('whatever'), coś (pl) n ('something' e.g. 'I have never done anything like that.'), nic (pl) n (in negative sentences), wszystko (pl) n (e.g. 'I would do anything for her.') Portuguese: qualquer coisa f Romanian: orice (ro), nimic (ro) Russian: всё, что уго́дно (vsjó, što ugódno), всё (ru) (vsjo), что уго́дно (što ugódno), что́-нибудь (ru) (štó-nibudʹ) Scottish Gaelic: rud sam bith Serbo-Croatian: Roman: bilošto, bilo što Slovak: čokoľvek Spanish: cualquier cosa Swahili: (in negative sentences) kitu (sw) class 7 Swedish: någonting (sv), vad som helst Telugu: ఏమైనా (te) (ēmainā) Tok Pisin: samting (tpi) Ukrainian: що-не́будь (uk) (ščo-nébudʹ), ніщо́ (niščó) (in negative sentences), будь-що (uk) (budʹ-ščo) Yiddish: עפּעס‎ (epes)

Noun

anything (plural anythings)

1. Someone or something of importance.
   • 1986, David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly:

     How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?

   • 2007 May 6, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, in New York Times‎:

     So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi.

Related terms

• anybody, anyone
• anywhere
• everything
• nothing
• something
• thing

 

Translations

someone or something

American Sign Language: A@Wrist-PalmUp-A@CenterTrunkhigh-PalmUp 5@SideTrunkhigh-PalmUp-5@SideTrunkhigh-PalmUp Finnish: mikä tahansa (fi) Greek: οτιδήποτε (el) (otidípote) Guerrero Amuzgo: makjo Japanese: 何でも (nandemo) Latin: quisquam (la) Maltese: kwalunkwe ħaġa Portuguese: qualquer coisa f Romanian: cineva (ro), ceva (ro) Scottish Gaelic: dad m, càil f Slovene: karkoli n Swedish: något (sv), vad som helst, vilken som helst, vilket som helst (1) Yiddish: עפּעס‎ (epes)

Etymology 2

From Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Old English ǣniġe þinga, ǣnġi þinga (literally “by any of things”), from ǣniġe, instrumental form of ǣniġ (“any”) + þinga, genitive plural of þing (“thing”).

Adverb

anything (not comparable)

1. In any way, any extent or any degree.

   That isn't anything like a car.

   She's not anything like as strong as me.

References

• anything in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• Thingyan