Ever
adj, adv, det, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Occurring at any time, occurring even but once during a timespan. not-comparable
"This family empathy measure is highly related to ever use of birth control but not to any measure of continuous use."
- 1 Always, frequently, forever. archaic, formal, not-comparable
"It was ever thus."
- 2 Continuously, constantly, all the time (for the complete duration). not-comparable
"People struggled to cope with the ever-increasing cost of living."
- 3 At any time. not-comparable
"We've only ever talked on the phone."
- 4 As intensifier following an interrogative word. informal, not-comparable
"Was I ever glad to see you!"
- 5 Indicates experiential aspect, once; has or have (done something) before. Manglish, Singlish, not-comparable
"but i ever ran 5mins using the 1400 cells and the type RR 23T motor..."
- 1 at all times; all the time and on every occasion wordnet
- 2 at any time wordnet
- 3 (intensifier for adjectives) very wordnet
- 1 Shortening of every dialectal, informal
""Ever place you look there's houses and more houses.""
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"That's the stupidest thing I've ever said."
Etymology
From Middle English ever, from Old English ǣfre, originally a phrase whose first element undoubtedly consists of Old English ā (“ever, always”) + in (“in”) + an element possibly from feorh (“life, existence”) (dative fēore). Compare Old English ā tō fēore (“ever in life”), Old English feorhlīf (“life”). Sense 5 of the adverb was likely formed by association with never, which also carries the meaning of did not in colloquial Singaporean and Malaysian English. Also, compare Chinese 有 … 過 /有 … 过 (yǒu ... guò / jau⁵ ... gwo³, “has […] before”).
Related phrases
More for "ever"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.