every man for himself
/ˈɛv.(ə.)ɹi mæn fɔː(ɹ)hɪmˈsɛlf/
"every-man-for-himself" is a 18-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“every man for himself” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A command, issued in case of shipwreck, that crew members are relieved of all duties and should try to save themselves.
Corpus desk
Index EN-every-man-for-himself · every man for himself · English
every man for himself · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 21 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | every man for himself |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | /ˈɛv.(ə.)ɹi mæn fɔː(ɹ)hɪmˈsɛlf/ |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “every man for himself” in English
Rare enough to double-check
every man for himself is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed /ˈɛv.(ə.)ɹi mæn fɔː(ɹ)hɪmˈsɛlf/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for every man for himself, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is every man for himself, spelled E-V-E-R-Y- -M-A-N- -F-O-R- -H-I-M-S-E-L-F.
Definition
- 1A command, issued in case of shipwreck, that crew members are relieved of all duties and should try to save themselves.
- 2An expression of indifference, describing or advocating selfishness, lack of comradeship etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how every man for himself appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Men, you have done your full duty. You can do no more. Abandon your cabin. Now it's every man for himself.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.