Anything Meaning
/ˈɛn.ɪ.θɪŋ/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
pronAny object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
pronExpressing an indefinite comparison.
Sentence Examples
I won't ask you anything else today.
Let me know if there is anything I can do.
It is too early for us to conclude anything.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the storm, we could not find ____ that was still standing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Is there ____ I can do to help you with your project this weekend?.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ís? Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Indo-European *h₁oy-no-kós Proto-Germanic *ainagaz Proto-West Germanic *ainag Old English ǣniġ Proto-Indo-European *tenk-? Proto-Indo-European *tenkóm Proto-Germanic *þingą Proto-West Germanic *þing Old English þing Old English aniþing Middle English anything English anything From Middle English anything, enything, onything, from Late Old English aniþing, from earlier ǣniġ þing (literally “any thing”), equivalent to any + thing.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language […] his clerks […] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there."
— 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
"In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%."
— 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
"Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much as anything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed."
— 1916, Edward S. Moffat, Go Forth and Find, pages 81–82:
"How long does it take to turn you actors into good anythings?"
— 1986, David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly:
"So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi."
— 2007 May 6, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, in New York Times:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After the storm, we could not find ____ that was still standing.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Is there ____ I can do to help you with your project this weekend?.