however
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /haʊˈɛvə/
enpr: houĕvʹər
ipa: /haʊˈɛvɚ/
ipa: /hɑˈwɛvə(ɹ)/
ipa: /hæɔˈevə/
ipa: /hæʊˈevə/
rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ)
Etymology: From Middle English however, how-ever, how-evere; equivalent to how + ever. Compare howsoever.
Senses: examples: text: He told me not to do it. However, I did it anyway. / I did it anyway, however. / I, however, did it anyway.
text: She wanted to go; however, she decided against it.
text: I didn't argue with him; I still think, however, that he is wrong.
text: Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
text: That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
ref: 2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:
synonyms: word: nonetheless
word: notwithstanding
word: that said
word: still and all
word: in any case
word: after all
word: anyway
word: all that said
word: anyhow
word: all the same
word: be it as it may
word: be that as it may
word: but
word: even so
word: having said that
word: howbeit
word: however
word: just the same
word: maugre
word: natheless
word: nevertheless
word: nonetheless
word: notwithstanding
word: still
word: still and all
word: that being said
word: that said
word: though
word: withal
word: yet
word: after all
word: algate
word: always
word: any road up
word: anyhoo
word: anyhow
word: anyroad
word: anyway
word: anyways
word: anywise
word: anywho
word: at all events
word: at any rate
word: be it what it would
word: come what may
word: hab or nab
word: however
word: in any case
word: in any event
word: regardless
coordinate_terms: but
glosses: Nevertheless; yet, still; in spite of that.
examples: text: The conference itself went very well. The party afterwards, however, was a disaster.
glosses: In contrast.
examples: text: However clear you think you've been, and however many questions you may've answered, there'll always remain some doubts.
text: Any rule of thumb, however true (it is), is useless unless you understand its underlying logic.
text: However much I study, I never get good grades.
text: Elinor, however little concerned in it, joined in their discourse; and Marianne, who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library, however it might be avoided by the family in general, soon procured herself a book.
ref: 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 42:
synonyms: ad lib
howsoever
howso
howsoevermuch
qualifier: degree
glosses: To whatever degree or extent.
examples: text: I don't care; just do it however.
text: Nothing was really planned; things just happened however.
topics: manner
glosses: In any way that one likes or chooses; in a haphazard or spontaneous way.
examples: text: I thought it was impossible. However were you able to do it?
synonyms: how + the dickens
coordinate_terms: whatever
glosses: How ever: an emphatic form of how, used to ask in what manner.
examples: text: Our chief end and highest interest is happiness : And this is happiness to be freed from all (if it may) [or] however from the greatest evils.
ref: c. 1680, John Tillotson
glosses: In any case, at any rate, at all events.