What vs Anything - What's the difference?
what | anything |
(interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
(relative, nonstandard) That; which.
* 1902 , , (The Admirable Crichton) :
(relative) That which; those that; the thing that.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= In some manner or degree; in part; partly; usually followed by with .
Such.
(label) Why?
* (rfdate) (Chaucer)
* (rfdate) (John Milton)
Used to introduce each of two coordinate phrases or concepts; both…and.
* :
* 1605 Wm. Shakespeare, King Lear
(British, colloquial, dated) Is that not true?
Which; which kind of.
How much; how great (used in an exclamation).
(obsolete) something; thing; stuff
* Spenser
In any way, any extent or any degree.
Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; thing of any kind; something or other; .
:
*
*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer languageunderstood 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.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)
, title=
*{{quote-book, year=1916, author=Edward S. Moffat, title=Go Forth and Find, page=81-82
, passage=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.}}
Someone or something of importance.
*
* {{quote-news, year=2007, date=May 6, author=Cindy Chupack, title=An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce, work=New York Times
, passage=So we tried not to talk about first or second anythings until our meeting with the rabbi. }}
As pronouns the difference between what and anything
is that what is (interrogative) which thing, event, circumstance, etc: used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc while anything is any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; thing of any kind; something or other;.As adverbs the difference between what and anything
is that what is in some manner or degree; in part; partly; usually followed by with while anything is in any way, any extent or any degree.As nouns the difference between what and anything
is that what is (obsolete) something; thing; stuff while anything is someone or something of importance.As an interjection what
is .As a determiner what
is which; which kind of.what
English
(wikipedia what)Pronoun
(English Pronouns)- That’s her; that’s the thing what has stole his heart from me.
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast […, or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",
Adverb
(-)- What should I tell the answer of the knight?
- But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates?
- And as for on C good knyghtes I haue my self / but I fawte / l / for so many haue ben slayne in my dayes / and so Ladegreans delyuerd his doughter Gweneuer vnto Merlyn / and the table round with the C knyghtes / and so they rode fresshly with grete royalte / what' by water and ' what by land / tyl that they came nyghe vnto london
Synonyms
* suchInterjection
(en interjection)- What , have his daughters brought him to this pass?
- What ! That’s amazing.
- It’s a nice day, what'''?'' (sometimes repeated, e.g.: '''''What'''-'''what ? )
Determiner
(en determiner)- What shirt are you going to wear?
- What time is it?
- What kind of car is that?
- What talent he has!
- What a talent!
Derived terms
* wat * what ho * whatness * what's whatNoun
(-)- They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed / Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, / That doth despise the dainties of the towne
Statistics
*anything
English
Adverb
(-)- That isn't anything like a car.
Pronoun
(English Pronouns)No hiding place, passage=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%.}}
Derived terms
() * anything else * anything goes * anythingarian * as anything * if anything * not much of anything * not that there's anything wrong with thatNoun
(en noun)citation