Anyway

How to spell anyway

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce anyway

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does anyway mean?

1. adverbIn any case; regardless of what has just been said or what might happen.

Anyway in a sentence

• The train was delayed, but we arrived on time anyway.

• She did not really want the job, and she withdrew her application anyway.

Where does anyway come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word formed in English from the combination of 'any' and 'way', where 'any' descends from the Old English aenig, meaning 'one' or 'some', and 'way' comes from the Old English weg, meaning 'a path, road, or course of travel'. For centuries English speakers used the open two-word phrase 'any way' to mean 'in any manner whatsoever', and the older variant 'anyways' with a trailing s reflected an Old English habit of marking adverbs with a genitive ending. The single fused adverb 'anyway', meaning 'in any case' or 'regardless', settled into common use during the 1800s as the phrase compressed into one word. The spelling trap is that the joined adverb 'anyway' (regardless) is distinct from the open phrase 'any way' (any method), and the dialect form 'anyways' is widely judged nonstandard in formal writing.

How the word is built

• any (determiner: one or some)
• way (manner, direction)