Every

How to spell every

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce every

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does every mean?

1. determinerUsed to refer to all the individual members of a group, considered one at a time.

Every in a sentence

• Every employee received a copy of the updated handbook.

• She checks her email every morning before work.

Where does every come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English phrase ǣfre ǣlc, which literally meant 'ever each' or 'each one always'. Over time this two-word expression was crushed together and worn down into a single word, with the older spellings 'everich' and 'everiche' appearing in Middle English before settling into the modern 'every'. The first part, ǣfre, is the same root that gives us 'ever', meaning 'at all times', while the second part, ǣlc, is the ancestor of the modern word 'each'. This fusion is why 'every' grammatically behaves like a singular determiner even though it gathers up a whole group: it still carries the sense of 'each one' buried inside it. The word was fully formed by the 1200s and has stayed remarkably stable in meaning ever since.

How the word is built

• ever (from Old English ǣfre: always)
• -y (reduced from ǣlc: each), giving 'ever-each'