any
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɛnɪ/
ipa: /ˈɛni/
ipa: /ˈæni/
ipa: /ˈæni/
homophone: Annie
ipa: /ˈɛni/
ipa: /ˈɪni/
homophone: innie (US, pin–pen merger)
rhymes: -ɛni
rhymes: -æni
Forms: form: anie
form: anny
Etymology: From Middle English any, eny, ony, ani, aniȝ, eniȝ, æniȝ, from Old English ǣniġ (“any”), from Proto-West Germanic *ainīg, *ainag, from Proto-Germanic *ainagaz, from Proto-Germanic *ainaz (“one”), equivalent to one + -y.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian eenich (“some”), West Frisian iennich (“only”), Dutch enig (“any, some”), Afrikaans enig (“any”), German Low German enig (“some”), German einig (“some”); via Proto-Indo-European *óynos cognate with Latin ūllus (“any”), Latin ūnicus (whence Italian unico (“unique”), French unique (“unique”)). Piecewise doublet of unique.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonym: some
text: Do you have any biscuits?
text: Do you have any food?
text: Do you think there's any point to/in trying to explain?
text: It won't do you any good.
text: "Give me your pen." — "I don't have any pen."
text: No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew xi:27:
text: In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts,[…], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
antonyms: zero#Determiner
no#Determiner
glosses: One at all; at least one; at least one kind of; some; a positive quantity of.
raw_tags: in the negative or interrogative
with plural or uncountable nouns
examples: text: Choose any item you want.
text: Any person may apply.
text: Press any key to continue.
text: The character '#' matches any digit 0–9.
text: Please bring some plates — any plates will do.
text: I'll drink any whiskey you've got.
text: This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: [a-z]: A range of characters that matches any character in the specified range. For example, [a-z] matches any lowercase alphabetic character in the range a through z.
ref: 2006 February, Chuck White, Developing Killer Web Apps with Dreamweaver MX and C#, Wiley, page 269:
text: Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: A/an, each or some, no matter its/their identity or nature.
examples: text: They'll be arriving any day.
text: I expect the phone to ring at any moment.
glosses: An unspecified but imminent (second, minute, day etc.).
raw_tags: with time designations
Derived terms: any and all
any and every
anybody
anycast
any day
any exposure is good exposure
any fule kno
any good
any hole's a goal
anyhow
any longer
any minute now
any moment now
anymore
any more
any nook or cranny
any number of
any old
anyon
anyone
any other business
anyplace
anypony
any port in a storm
any press is good press
anyroad
any road
anyshit
any the wiser
anything
anytime
any time
any time now
any time soon
Anytown
anyway
any way
any way one cuts it
any way one slices it
anywhat
anywhen
anywhence
anywhere
any which way
anywhither
anywho
anywhom
anywise
at any cost
at any event
at any given moment
at any hand
at any rate
at any risk
by any chance
by any means
by any measure
by any stretch
for any sake
getting any
in any case
in any event
just any
know any better
not by any manner of means
of any use
on any view
with any luck
Related terms: some
anny