Definition of "every" in English

determiner

1. All of a countable group (considered individually), without exception.

   • Every person in the room stood and cheered.
   • She watches my every move.

2. Denotes equal spacing at a stated interval, or a proportion corresponding to such a spacing.

   • We stopped for refreshments every ten miles.
   • The alarm is going off every few minutes.
   • Every third bead was red, and the rest were blue. The sequence was thus red, blue, blue, red, blue, blue etc.
   • Decimation originally meant the execution of every tenth soldier in a unit; that is, ten per cent of soldiers were killed.

3. (with certain nouns) Denotes an abundance of something.

   • We wish you every happiness in the future.
   • He shows every sign of becoming an excellent player. I have every confidence in him.
   • There is every reason why we shouldn't.
   • The police will make every effort to trace the missing girl.