Word.ws English Dictionary

either

Syllables: ei·ther/ˈaɪ.ðə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈɑjðə/

either determiner: any one (of two).

Determiner

either

  1. Any one (of two).
    • You can have it in either colour.
  2. Each of two; both.
    • There is a locomotive at either end of the train, one pulling and the other pushing.
    • There are roses on either side of the garden.
  3. (often, proscribed) Any one (of more than two).
    • I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct...Jonathan Swift (1726), Gulliver's Travels, 1st edition
    • They entreat, they pray, they beg, they supplicate (will either of these do, Miss Clary?) that you will make no scruple to go to your uncle Antony's […].1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […]...

Pronoun

either

  1. One or the other of two people or things.
    • He made me two offers, but I did not accept either.
    • Hodgson may now have to bring in James Milner on the left and, on that basis, a certain amount of gloss was taken off a night on which Welbeck scored twice but barely celebrated either before leaving the pitch angrily complaining to the Slovakian referee.2013 September 7, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian
  2. (obsolete) Both, each of two or more.
    • Scarce a palm of ground could be gotten by either of the three.a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount...
    • And either vowd with all their power and wit, / To let not others honour be defaste […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Adverb

either (not comparable)

  1. (conjunctive) As well.
    • I don't like him, and I don't like her either.
    • I know a cheap Spanish restaurant. It's not far from here, either.

Conjunction

either

  1. Introduces the first of two (or occasionally more) options or possibilities, the second (or last) of which is introduced by “or”.
    • Either you eat your dinner or you go to your room.
    • You can have either potatoes or rice with that, but not both.
    Synonyms:
    whether

either meaning in Pashto, Arabic, Indonesian and Persian

either in Pashto

each of two
دواړه dwâṛa

either in Arabic

(after a negative) as well
أَيْضًا ʔayḍan, كَذٰلِكَ ka-ḏālika
introduces the first of two options
إِمَّا ... إِمَّا ʔimmā ... ʔimmā

either in Indonesian

introduces the first of two options
antara ... atau

either in Persian

introduces the first of two options
یا

Examples of either in a sentence

  • You'll be either early, late, or on time.
  • Either you'll finish your homework or you'll be grounded.
  • Her hands, long and beautiful, lay on either side of her face.1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 31:
  • There have been three famous talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists.1872, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast-Table:
  • Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
  • If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.1893, Walter Besant, “Prologue”, in The Ivory Gate:

All 40 example sentences with either

Synonyms of either

Origin of either

From Middle English either, from Old English ǣġhwæþer, from Proto-West Germanic *aiw + *gahwaþar. Akin to Old Saxon eogihwethar, iahwethar (Low German jeed); Old Dutch *iogewether, *iowether, *iother (Dutch ieder); Old High German eogihwedar, iegihweder, ieweder (German jeder). The pronunciations with /iː/ and /eɪ/ respectively reflect Middle English forms in /ɛː/ and /æi/; the origin of that with /aɪ/ is less clear, but it may reflect a Middle English form with /iː/; see Middle English either for more discussion.

Words formed from either

Phrases with either

Words that rhyme with either

Questions about either

What does either mean?
Either means any one (of two).
What is either in Pashto?
Either in Pashto is دواړه (dwâṛa). See Either meaning in Pashto.
How do you use either in a sentence?
You'll be either early, late, or on time.
What part of speech is either?
Either can be a determiner, a pronoun, an adverb or a conjunction.
How do you pronounce either?
Either is pronounced /ˈaɪ.ðə/ (UK).

Words near either in the dictionary

  1. eitches
  2. EITCs
  3. Eitel
  4. eitelite
  5. Eitels
  6. either
  7. either did or died
  8. either do or die
  9. either does or dies
  10. either doing or dying
  11. either done or died

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: either (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-either.ogg, en-us-either.ogg.

Cite this entry: “either.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/either. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.