anything.
Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
Meaning & usage
Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.
I would not do it for anything.
Expressing an indefinite comparison.
Where this word comes from
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.
Someone or something of importance.
Where this word comes from
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.
Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs.
He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't anythinging!
–I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to anything him!
Where this word comes from
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.
In any way, any extent or any degree.
That isn't anything like a car.
She's not anything like as strong as me.
Where this word comes from
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 Old English ǣniġe Proto-Indo-European *tenk-? Proto-Indo-European *tenkóm Proto-Germanic *þingą Proto-West Germanic *þing Old English þing Old English þinga Old English ǣniġe þinga Middle English anything English anything From Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Old English ǣniġe þinga, ǣnġi þinga (literally “by any of things”), from ǣniġe, instrumental form of ǣniġ (“any”) + þinga, genitive plural of þing (“thing”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.