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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

both.

Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

det/boʊθ//bəʊθ/[bəʊθ]Received-Pronunciation/bəwθ/British, Southern, Standard

  1. Each of the two; one and the other; referring to two individuals or items.

    Both (the/my) children are such dolls.
    Which one do you need? ―I need both of them.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and possibly reinforced by Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō, from Old English bā, a form of Old English bēġen. A remnant of the Indo-European dual grammatical number.

pron/boʊθ//bəʊθ/[bəʊθ]Received-Pronunciation/bəwθ/British, Southern, Standard

  1. Each of the two, or of the two kinds.

    Did you want this one or that one? ―Give me both.
    They were both here.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and possibly reinforced by Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō, from Old English bā, a form of Old English bēġen. A remnant of the Indo-European dual grammatical number.

conj/boʊθ//bəʊθ/[bəʊθ]Received-Pronunciation/bəwθ/British, Southern, Standard

  1. Including both of (used with and).

  2. Including all of (used with and).

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bothe, boþe, from Old English bā þā (“both the; both those”) and possibly reinforced by Old Norse báðir, from Proto-Germanic *bai. Cognate with Saterland Frisian bee (“both”), West Frisian beide (“both”), Dutch beide (“both”), German beide (“both”), Swedish både, båda, Danish både, Norwegian både, Icelandic báðir. Replaced Middle English bō, from Old English bā, a form of Old English bēġen. A remnant of the Indo-European dual grammatical number.

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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.