every

See also: Every

every - English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA: /ˈɛv.(ə.)ɹi/
  • Hyphenation: eve‧ry, ev‧e‧ry

Determiner

every

  1. All of a countable group (considered individually), without exception.
    • Every person in the room stood and cheered.
  2. Denotes equal spacing at a stated interval, or a proportion corresponding to such a spacing.
    • We stopped for refreshments every ten miles.
    • The alarm is going off every few minutes.
    • Every third bead was red, and the rest were blue. The sequence was thus red, blue, blue, red, blue, blue etc.
    • Decimation originally meant the execution of every tenth soldier in a unit; that is, ten per cent of soldiers were killed.
  3. (with certain nouns) Denotes an abundance of something.
    • We wish you every happiness in the future.
    • I have every confidence in him.
    • There is every reason why we should not go.
    • The police will make every effort to trace the missing girl.

Usage notes

  • Now generally used only for a group of three or more, but formerly could be used for two, in the sense of "each" or "both":
    • 1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet:
      • But it is true that I tell ye; our dear bairn is to meet us at Moffat the morn, wi' a son in every hand; and we maun e'en gang and see her aince again, and kiss her and bless her afore we dee.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Anagrams

every - Middle English

Adjective

every

  1. Alternative form of everich
Meaning and Definition of every
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