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Everyday

adjectiveOrdinary, commonplace, or used routinely rather than for special occasions.

How to spell everyday

everyday

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce everyday

American pronunciation
EV-ree-DAY
/ˈɛvriˈdeɪ/

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does everyday mean?

  1. adjectiveOrdinary, commonplace, or used routinely rather than for special occasions.

Everyday in a sentence

Voice

Where does everyday come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a compound of the Old English words 'aefre' (meaning 'ever' or 'always') and 'daeg' (meaning 'day'), the same native Germanic roots that give us 'every' and 'day' as separate words today. For centuries English writers used the two-word phrase 'every day' as an adverb, describing something that happens each day. By around the early 1600s the joined adjective 'everyday' had emerged to mean 'ordinary' or 'suitable for daily use', as in everyday clothes. The crucial point for spelling is that the closed-up single word is the adjective ('an everyday occurrence'), while the open two-word form remains the time phrase ('it happens every day'); collapsing them in the wrong place is the most common error. The fused spelling simply preserves the old roots pressed together with no extra letters.

How the word is built

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