Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being either or any unit of a numerical aggregate consisting of two or more, indefinitely: used in predicating the same thing of both or all the members of the pair, aggregate, or series mentioned or taken into account, considered individually or one by one: often followed by one, with of before a noun (partitive genitive): as, each sex; each side of the river; each stone in a building; each one of them has taken a different course from every other.
  • Every one of any number or numerical aggregate, considered individually: equivalent to the adjectival phrase each one: as, each went his way; each had two; each of them was of a different size (that is, from all the others, or from every one else in the number).
  • Both.
  • Each the other; one another: now generally used when two persons or things are concerned, but also used more loosely like one another (which see, under another): as, they love each other (that is, each loves the other).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Every one of the two or more individuals composing a number of objects, considered separately from the rest. It is used either with or without a following noun.
  • adjective Every; -- sometimes used interchangeably with every.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • determiner all; every; qualifying a singular noun, indicating all examples of the thing so named seen as individual or separate items (compare every)
  • determiner every one; every thing
  • determiner For one; per
  • noun operations, philosophy An individual item: the least quantitative unit in a grouping.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb to or from every one of two or more (considered individually)
  • adjective (used of count nouns) every one considered individually

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English eche, from Old English ǣlċ, contraction of ǣġhwilċ ("each, every, any, all"), from Proto-Germanic *aiwô (“ever, always”) + *galīkaz (“alike”), equivalent to ay + like. Compare Scots ilk, elk ("each, every"), West Frisian elk ("each"), Low German elk, ellik ("each"), Dutch elk ("each"), German jeglich ("any").

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Examples

  • The first seven structure to be placed around each for the wellness and betterment of everyone. ..each person, each community, each nation.

    Inside a crowded classroom 2010

  • It appears to me that, given a differentiation of a species into two forms, each of which was adapted to a special sphere of existence, every slight degree of sterility would be a positive advantage, not to the _individuals_ who were sterile, but to _each form_.

    Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1 James Marchant

  • "In whatever light we consider their invention, as parts of _one whole_, relative to each other, or independent _each of the rest_, and as single subjects, there can be scarcely named a beauty or a mystery, of which the Cartoons furnish not an instance or a clue; _they are poised between perspicuity and pregnancy of moment_."

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 Various

  • On the first day he opened, he said to the assembled school that he wanted each scholar to consider him as _a friend_; that he desired nothing but their good; and that it was for the interest of _each one_ of them that _all_ should be careful to observe the few and simple rules which he should lay down for the government of the school.

    Godey's Lady's Book, Vol. 42, January, 1851 Various

  • I find “I can tell each one what they make, ” “each fellow put their foot on the line, ” “nobody can do what they like” and “she was one of these kind89 of people” in Charters, and “I am not the kind of man that is always thinking about their record, ” “if he was to hit a man in the head… they would think their nose tickled” in Lardner.

    Chapter 9. The Common Speech. 4. The Pronoun Henry Louis 1921

  • Where the valley is a flat one, with rising ground at each side, there should be a sub-main, to receive the laterals from _each_ hill side.

    Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health 1865

  • _Every_ denotes each without exception, and can now only be used with reference to more than two objects; _each_ may refer to two or more.

    Milton's Comus John Milton 1641

  • The difference between each () and a manual JavaScript loop is that each () automatically maps the "this" object to the element in the collection being processed.

    MSDN Magazine: RSS Feed 2009

  • P £, D F I homologous to the fides B C» A B, A C9 each to each» becaufe the one & the other of thofe V are equal each to each to the V P* f.

    Instructions given in the drawing school established by the Dublin society 1769

  • But in my Method the aim is _to repeat as much of the sentence as is possible informing the question and the whole of it in each reply_; and in _question and reply_ the _word_ that _constitutes the point of both_ is to be especially _emphasized_, and in this way _the mind is exercised on each word of the sentence twice_ (once in question and once in answer), and _each word of the sentence is emphasized in reference to the whole of the sentence_.

    Assimilative Memory or, How to Attend and Never Forget

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