What's the difference between anything and something?

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.

Something


Definition:

  • (n.) Anything unknown, undetermined, or not specifically designated; a certain indefinite thing; an indeterminate or unknown event; an unspecified task, work, or thing.
  • (n.) A part; a portion, more or less; an indefinite quantity or degree; a little.
  • (n.) A person or thing importance.
  • (adv.) In some degree; somewhat; to some extent; at some distance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I ask a friend to have a stab at, “down at cafe that does us butties”, and he said: “Something to do with his ass?” “Whose arse?” He looked panicked.
  • (2) It shows that the outside world is paying attention to what we're doing; it feels like we're achieving something."
  • (3) Amid the acrimony of the failed debate on the Malaysia Agreement, something was missed or forgotten: many in the left had changed their mind.
  • (4) It is an intriguing moment: the new culture secretary, Sajid Javid, who was brought in to replace Maria Miller last month, is something of an unknown quantity.
  • (5) Mr Heine suggested: "It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki."
  • (6) The mother in Arthur Ransome's children's classic, Swallows and Amazons, is something of a cipher, but her inability to make basic decisions does mean she receives one of the finest telegrams in all literature.
  • (7) After friends heard that he was on them, Brumfield started observing something strange: “If we had people over to the Super Bowl or a holiday season party, I’d notice that my medicines would come up short, no matter how good friends they were.” Twice people broke into his house to get to the drugs.
  • (8) Michele Hanson 'The heat finally broke – I realised something had to change …' Stuart Heritage (right) with his brother in 2003.
  • (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) "Maybe dullness is associated with psychic pain," Wallace wrote at one point, "because something that's dull or opaque fails to provide enough stimulation to distract people from some other, deeper type of pain that is always there, if only in an ambient low-level way, and which most of us spend nearly all our time and energy trying to distract ourselves from."
  • (11) He was often detained and occasionally beaten when he returned to Minsk for demonstrations, but “if he thought it was professional duty to uncover something, he did that no matter what threats were made,” Kalinkina said.
  • (12) You might even arrive home with something tolerable for supper.
  • (13) When I told my friend Rob that I was coming to visit him in Rio, I suggested we try something a bit different to going to the beach every day and drinking caipirinhas until three in the morning.
  • (14) At least Depay departed having had a shot on target, something his manager will probably offer as proof United are improving.
  • (15) In saying what he did, he was not telling any frequent flyer something they didn't already know, and he was not protesting about any newly adopted measures.
  • (16) Later, Lucas, also a former party leader, strongly defended Bennett, saying it was a “bad day for Natalie” but there was also “kind of a gloating tone that strikes one as having something to do with her being a woman in there too”.
  • (17) There can’t be something, someone that could fix this and chooses not to.” Years of agnosticism and an open attitude to religious beliefs thrust under the bus, acknowledging the shame that comes from sitting down with those the world forgot.
  • (18) Over the years it has become something of a Westminster ritual.
  • (19) Women in their 20s Christina Wallace , Director, Startup Institute of New York I do think the women's movement is stalled – especially since it's just not something my generation really thinks about.
  • (20) "We have accomplished something that has never happened before," the 68-year-old said.