Meanings
- abbreviationcontractionpoeticContraction of every.
Ev’ry night when ev’rybody has fun, here am I sitting all on my own.
1963, John Lennon, "It Won't Be Long", in Alan Aldridge, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1991) p. 1852 more examples
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw; Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!
1895, Katharine Lee Bates, "America the Beautiful", first published as "Pikes Peak", The Congregationalis, July 4th, 1895)There’s a boy snail for ev’ry girl snail, There’s a boy quail for ev’ry girl quail/ There’s a boy mouse for ev’ry girl mouse, There’s a boy grouse for ev’ry girl grouse
1943, Cole Porter, “There Must Be Someone for Me”, in The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, published 1992, page 345
Origin
Every used to be a trisyllabic word, and it was therefore at times necessary to replace the second e with an apostrophe to pronounce the word as two syllables for poetic reasons.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with ev'ry
All rhymes →Cite this entry
ev'ry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ev'ry
“ev'ry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ev'ry. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ev'ry,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ev'ry.
Source: ev'ry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.