Any way or anyway?
any way is an adverb meaning “the words any and way: in any way, each in its own sense”; anyway is an adverb meaning “Regardless; anyhow”. any way is written as two words and anyway as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between any way and anyway?
| any way | anyway | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | adverb |
| Meaning | Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see any, way: in any way | Regardless; anyhow Used to indicate that a statement explains or supports a previous statement. See anyhow and at least |
| Example | none recorded | He didn't enjoy washing his car, but it was so dirty that he did it anyway |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈɛniweɪ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 81 times per million words |
Sources: any way and anyway in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of any way and anyway
any way
- 1
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see any, way: in any way
anyway
- 1
Regardless; anyhow
He didn't enjoy washing his car, but it was so dirty that he did it anyway
- 2
Used to indicate that a statement explains or supports a previous statement. See anyhow and at least
I don't think that's true. I haven't found any evidence, anyway
- 3
Used to indicate a change of subject
- 4
Used at the end of a question for emphasis, or to direct the conversation to something of more broad importance (compare with more to the point)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, any way or anyway?
any way is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; anyway 81 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search any way vs anyway?
“any way vs anyway” is searched about 40 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.