Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - every

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. You use every to indicate that you are referring to all the members of a group or all the parts of something and not only some of them. Record every expenditure you make. ...recipes for every occasion. DET: DET sing-n • Every is also an adjective. His every utterance will be scrutinized... ADJ: poss ADJ n 2. You use every in order to say how often something happens or to indicate that something happens at regular intervals. We were made to attend meetings every day... A burglary occurs every three minutes in London... They meet here every Friday morning. DET 3. You use every in front of a number when you are saying what proportion of people or things something happens to or applies to. Two out of every three Britons already own a video recorder... About one in every 20 people have clinical depression... DET: out of/in/for DET amount 4. You can use every before some nouns, for example ‘sign’, ‘effort’, ‘reason’, and ‘intention’ in order to emphasize what you are saying. The Congressional Budget Office says the federal deficit shows every sign of getting larger... I think that there is every chance that you will succeed... Every care has been taken in compiling this list. ? no DET: DET sing-n c darkgreen]emphasis 5. If you say that someone’s every whim, wish, or desire will be satisfied, you are emphasizing that everything they want will happen or be provided. Dozens of servants had catered to his every whim. ADJ: poss ADJ n c darkgreen]emphasis 6. You use every in the expressions every now and then, every now and again, every once in a while, and every so often in order to indicate that something happens occasionally. Stir the batter every now and then to keep it from separating... Every so often the horse’s heart and lungs are checked. PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR with cl 7. If something happens every other day or every second day, for example, it happens one day, then does not happen the next day, then happens the day after that, and so on. You can also say that something happens every third week, every fourth year, and so on. I went home every other week... PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR with cl 8. every bit as good as: see bit every which way: see way