Any

//ɛni// adv, det, pron

adv, det, pron ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    one or some or every or all without specification; entity, elective existential pronoun; quantifier, elective existential wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    To even the slightest extent, at all. not-comparable

    "If you get any taller, you'll start having to duck through doorways!"

Adverb
  1. 1
    to any degree or extent wordnet
Determiner
  1. 1
    One at all; at least one; at least one kind of; some; a positive quantity of.

    "Near-synonym: some"

  2. 2
    A/an, each or some, no matter its/their identity or nature.

    "Choose any item you want."

  3. 3
    An unspecified but imminent (second, minute, day etc.).

    "They'll be arriving any day."

Pronoun
  1. 1
    Any thing(s) or person(s).

    "Any may apply."

Synonyms

All synonyms
eachaa certainallall and someall and sundry

Example

More examples

"It's useless to keep on thinking any more."

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.

Related phrases

any and allany and everyany dayany exposure is good exposureany fule knoany given Sundayany goodany hole's a goalany longerany minute nowany moment nowany more

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.