anyone

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See also: any one

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English eny on, ony one, equivalent to anyone.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈɛniˌwʌn/, /ˈæniˌwʌn/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Pronoun

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anyone

  1. Any person; anybody.
    Almost anyone can change a light bulb.
    • 1891, George Bernard Shaw, Quintessence of Ibsenism:
      The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 8, in Death on the Centre Court:
      “[…] Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm straight, but this time I had six thousand quid at stake. […] I laid 'em long odds because it wasn't in the nature of things that Wynbolt could beat all of them champs. Then—then he smashed one after another, until I got windy—nervous as you might say. […]”
    • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
      It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].

Synonyms

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Translations

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