either

CEFRA2

/ˈaɪ.ðə/

determiner · pronoun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    determiner

    One or the other of two people or things.

  2. 02

    determiner

    Extra detail

    Each of two; both.

Examples

  • You can park on either side of the street.

  • You may take either the big box or the small one.

At a glance

Sits at A2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈɑj.d̪ə(r)/
  • /ˈɑjðə/

Deep Dive

determiner

Extra meanings

  1. Any one (of two).

  2. Any one (of more than two).

pronoun

Extra meaning

  1. Both, each of two or more.

More examples

In context

  • I can't explain it either.

  • There are roses on either side of the garden.

  • There is a locomotive at either end of the train, one pulling and the other pushing.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

You can choose blank the blue shirt or the red one.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

determiner

From Middle English either, from Old English ǣġhwæþer, from Proto-West Germanic *aiw + *gahwaþar. Akin to Old Saxon eogihwethar, iahwethar (Low German jeed); Old Dutch *iogewether, *iowether, *iother (Dutch ieder); Old High German eogihwedar, iegihweder, ieweder (German jeder). The pronunciations with /iː/ and /eɪ/ respectively reflect Middle English forms in /ɛː/ and /æi/; the origin of that with /aɪ/ is less clear, but it may reflect a Middle English form with /iː/; see Middle English either for more discussion.