What's the difference between any and anything?

Any


Definition:

  • (a. & pron.) One indifferently, out of an indefinite number; one indefinitely, whosoever or whatsoever it may be.
  • (a. & pron.) Some, of whatever kind, quantity, or number; as, are there any witnesses present? are there any other houses like it?
  • (adv.) To any extent; in any degree; at all.

Example Sentences:

Anything


Definition:

  • (n.) Any object, act, state, event, or fact whatever; thing of any kind; something or other; aught; as, I would not do it for anything.
  • (n.) Expressing an indefinite comparison; -- with as or like.
  • (adv.) In any measure; anywise; at all.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) At the moment we are, if anything, slightly lagging."
  • (2) I hope they fight for the money to make their jobs worth doing, because it's only with the money (a drop in the ocean though it may be) that they'll be able to do anything.
  • (3) I usually use them as a rag with which to clean the toilet but I didn’t have anything else to wear today because I’m so fat.” While this exchange will sound baffling to outsiders, to Brits it actually sounds like this: “You like my dress?
  • (4) Anything not eligible is simply ignored or assumed to be someone else’s responsibility.
  • (5) Other than failing to get a goal, I couldn’t ask for anything more.” From Lambert’s perspective there was an element of misfortune about the first and third goals, with Willian benefitting from handy ricochets on both occasions.
  • (6) In assessing damaged nets and curtains it must be recognised that anything less than the best vector control may have no appreciable impact on holoendemic malaria.
  • (7) While superheroes like “superman” (21st in SplashData’s 2014 rankings) and “batman” (24th) may be popular choices for passwords, the results if they are cracked could be anything other than super – and users will only have themselves to blame.
  • (8) There's a massive police station there, and they couldn't do anything.
  • (9) If we’re waiting around for the Democratic version to sail through here, or the Republican version to sail through here, all those victims who are waiting for us to do something will wait for days, months, years, forever and we won’t get anything done.” Senator Bill Nelson, whose home state of Florida is still reeling from the Orlando shooting, said he felt morally obligated to return to his constituents with results.
  • (10) You can get a five-month-old to eat almost anything,” says Clare Llewellyn, lecturer in behavioural obesity research at University College London.
  • (11) TalkTalk said customers should monitor their accounts over the coming months and report anything unusual to Action Fraud.
  • (12) This conception of the city as an expression of both regal power and social order, guided by cosmological principles and the pursuit of yin-yang equilibrium, was unlike anything in the western tradition.
  • (13) It may unsettle Exxon Mobil a little but they are pretty experienced now and I don’t think they would derail anything,” she said.
  • (14) Clarke varies the intensity of sessions but for most of the time it's go hard or go home: I've learned that neither more pain nor being sick are anything to be afraid of.
  • (15) 11.57pm BST "Can anyone remember anything, anything at all, from the debates four years ago?
  • (16) More than anything else, though, we need a clear and unambiguous commitment to end the housing crisis within a generation.
  • (17) And I was a little surprised because I said: ‘Doesn’t sound like he did anything wrong there.’ But he did something wrong with respect to the vice-president and I thought that was not acceptable.” So that’s clear.
  • (18) Indeed, with the pageantry already knocked off the top of the news by reports from Old Trafford, the very idea of a cohesive coalition programme about anything other than cuts looks that bit harder to sustain.
  • (19) "There's not previously been anything of this size or scale," she told the Guardian last month .
  • (20) We made it clear we don’t support extending hours to do anything other than debate the important issue of Senate voting reform and we won’t do anything to bring on the ABCC legislation,” Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, told ABC TV.