whatsoever

English

Etymology

what +‎ soever

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˌwɒtsəʊˈɛvə(ɹ)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛvə(r)

Adjective

whatsoever (not comparable)

  1. Whatever.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
      In whatsoever shape he lurk
    • The Holy Bible, Genesis xxxi. 16
      Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
  2. In any way; at all.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
      In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
    He gave me no answer whatsoever.

Translations

Pronoun

whatsoever

  1. (obsolete) whatever
    • Bible, Genesis xxxi. 16
      Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.
    • Francis Bacon
      […] I must require you to use diligence in presenting especially those purloinings and imbezlements, which are of plate, vessel, or whatsoever within the King's house.

Usage notes

The word is sometimes divided by tmesis: “What things soever ye desire”. (Mark xi. 24)

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for whatsoever in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

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