anyway
/ˈɛniweɪ/adverb
anyway is spelled A-N-Y-W-A-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is anway: about 180 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Anyway is an adverb meaning “Regardless; anyhow”.
How many letters and syllables are in anyway?
| Letters | 6: A-N-Y-W-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 81 times per million words; the 1,302nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, anway, about 180 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell anyway?
Anyway is spelled A-N-Y-W-A-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for anyway in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is anyway?
Anyway appears 81 times per million words in written English, the 1,302nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce anyway?
- /ˈɛniweɪ/
Anyway has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-anyway.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with anyway
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: any way (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of anyway
- anyways
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does anyway mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 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).
- 5
obsoleteIn any way.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate anyway?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of anyway: anw, neway.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Anyway in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quand même, de toute façon, malgré tout , en tout cas, d'ailleurs |
| German | trotzdem, ohnehin , auf jeden Fall, jedenfalls , wie auch immer |
| Portuguese | mesmo assim, de qualquer forma, de qualquer maneira, de todo modo , mesmo , de qualquer modo |
| Spanish | aun así, comoquiera, igual , “pues, por lo menos…” , pero bueno, pues nada |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does anyway come from?
From any + way.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).