What's the difference between anything and thing?

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.

Thing


Definition:

  • (n.) Whatever exists, or is conceived to exist, as a separate entity, whether animate or inanimate; any separable or distinguishable object of thought.
  • (n.) An inanimate object, in distinction from a living being; any lifeless material.
  • (n.) A transaction or occurrence; an event; a deed.
  • (n.) A portion or part; something.
  • (n.) A diminutive or slighted object; any object viewed as merely existing; -- often used in pity or contempt.
  • (n.) Clothes; furniture; appurtenances; luggage; as, to pack or store one's things.
  • (n.) Whatever may be possessed or owned; a property; -- distinguished from person.
  • (n.) In Scandinavian countries, a legislative or judicial assembly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One thing seems to be noteworthy in their opinion: the bacterial resistance of the germs isolated from the urine is bigger than the one of the germs isolated from the respiratory apparatus.
  • (2) The curious thing, it seems to me, is that she was never criticised for it.
  • (3) I’ve never really had that work versus life thing; it’s all part of the same canvas.
  • (4) I f you haven’t got a family, you need that replaced in some way, that’s the most important thing you can do for someone in care,” says 24-year-old Chloe Juliette, herself a care leaver.
  • (5) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tried to liven things up, but there are only so many ways to tell us to be nice to chickens.
  • (6) Benzaldehyde's in cherries and cherrystones and amaretto, so it's immediately a base to pair things with."
  • (7) The most difficult thing I've dealt with at work is ... the terminal illness of a valued colleague.
  • (8) Photograph: Gareth Phillips for the Guardian Because health is devolved, the Welsh government can do things differently from England.
  • (9) Nick Robins, head of the Climate Change Centre at HSBC, said: "If you think about low-carbon energy only in terms of carbon, then things look tough [in terms of not using coal].
  • (10) But do you know the thing that really bites?” he pointed to his home, which was not visible behind an overgrown hedge.
  • (11) One radio critic described Jacobs' late night Sunday show as a "tidying-up time, a time for wistfulness, melancholy, a recognition that there were once great things and great feelings in this world.
  • (12) October 27, 2013 7.27pm GMT Around the league And here’s how things look elsewhere, as we head into the fourth quarter: Cowboys 13-7 Lions Browns 17-20 Chiefs Dolphins 17-20 Patriots Bills 10-28 Saints Giants 15-0 Eagles 49ers 35-10 Jaguars 7.25pm GMT End of 3rd quarter: 49ers 35-10 Jaguars The quarter ends with the Jaguars facing a third-and-one at their own 32.
  • (13) The two groups had one thing in common: the casualties' mostly deliberate posttraumatic reaction; there were only 3 patients in a state of helplessness.
  • (14) On a weekend that sees the country celebrate 50 years of independence it is certain that despite all things – good and bad – that have taken place in 2013, the next 50 years will be transformed by personal technology, concerned citizens and the media.
  • (15) One of the things Yang has said he wants to investigate is: "This state we're in ... a moment when we have to negotiate our past while inventing our present."
  • (16) Advancing the health and rights of women is the right – and smart – thing to do for any nation hoping to remain or emerge as a leader on the global stage.
  • (17) Before the offer for the jungle came in she was meant to be presenting the Plus Size Awards this week, an event supporting plus-size people who are doing amazing things but are overlooked by the mainstream.
  • (18) Pekka Isosomppi Press counsellor, Finnish embassy, London • It may have been said tongue in cheek, but I must correct Michael Booth on one thing – his claim that no one talks about cricket in Denmark .
  • (19) In some ways, the Gandolfini performance that his fans may savour most is his voice work in Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are (2009), the cult screen version of Maurice Sendak 's picture book classic – he voiced Carol, one of the wild things, an untamed, foul-mouthed figure.
  • (20) If people improved their consciousness, things would work better.