Anyway or anyways?
anyway is an adverb meaning “Regardless; anyhow”; anyways is an adverb meaning “Anyway, anyhow, in any case”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) anyway is about 7.4 times as common as anyways.
What is the difference between anyway and anyways?
| anyway | anyways | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb | adverb |
| Meaning | Regardless; anyhow Used to indicate that a statement explains or supports a previous statement. See anyhow and at least | CanadaUSinformalAnyway, anyhow, in any case |
| Example | He didn't enjoy washing his car, but it was so dirty that he did it anyway | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɛniweɪ/ | /ˈɛn.iˌweɪz/ |
| In writing | 81 times per million words | 11 times per million words |
Sources: anyway and anyways 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 anyway and anyways
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)
anyways
- 1
CanadaUSinformalAnyway, anyhow, in any case
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, anyway or anyways?
anyway appears 81 times per million words; anyways 11 times per million words.
anyway 81 times per million wordsanyways 11 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 anyway vs anyways?
“anyway vs anyways” is searched about 880 times a month on Google and 130 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“anyways vs anyway”, “anyway or anyways”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.