"by any means" meaning in English

See by any means in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: en-au-by any means.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} by any means, {{en-PP}} by any means
  1. Using whatever method or strategy is required. Synonyms: at all costs, no matter what, whatever it takes
    Sense id: en-by_any_means-en-prep_phrase--x9CQgaz Categories (other): English terms with collocations
  2. (idiomatic) In any manner whatsoever; at all. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: by all means, by no means, the end justifies the means, the ends justify the means, means to an end, ways and means Translations (Translations): zuby nehty (Czech), keinoja kaihtamatta (Finnish), de toute façon (French), de toute manière (French), senza esclusione di colpi (Italian), in tutte le maniere (Italian), in qualunque modo (Italian), por todos los medios (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-by_any_means-en-prep_phrase-m2Ea36Qv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 27 73 Disambiguation of 'Translations': 26 74

Download JSON data for by any means meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "by any means",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "by any means",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with collocations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with collocations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "by any means necessary",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Using whatever method or strategy is required."
      ],
      "id": "en-by_any_means-en-prep_phrase--x9CQgaz",
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "at all costs"
        },
        {
          "word": "no matter what"
        },
        {
          "word": "whatever it takes"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I do not by any means blame the employees for the collapse of the company."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In any manner whatsoever; at all."
      ],
      "id": "en-by_any_means-en-prep_phrase-m2Ea36Qv",
      "links": [
        [
          "at all",
          "at all"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In any manner whatsoever; at all."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "by all means"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "by no means"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "the end justifies the means"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "the ends justify the means"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "means to an end"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "16 84",
          "word": "ways and means"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "cs",
          "lang": "Czech",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "zuby nehty"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "keinoja kaihtamatta"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "de toute façon"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "de toute manière"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "senza esclusione di colpi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "in tutte le maniere"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "in qualunque modo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "26 74",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "por todos los medios"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-by any means.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/21/En-au-by_any_means.ogg/En-au-by_any_means.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/En-au-by_any_means.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by any means"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Translation table header lacks gloss"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "by any means",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "by any means",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "by all means"
    },
    {
      "word": "by no means"
    },
    {
      "word": "the end justifies the means"
    },
    {
      "word": "the ends justify the means"
    },
    {
      "word": "means to an end"
    },
    {
      "word": "ways and means"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with collocations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "by any means necessary",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Using whatever method or strategy is required."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "at all costs"
        },
        {
          "word": "no matter what"
        },
        {
          "word": "whatever it takes"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I do not by any means blame the employees for the collapse of the company."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In any manner whatsoever; at all."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "at all",
          "at all"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In any manner whatsoever; at all."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-by any means.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/21/En-au-by_any_means.ogg/En-au-by_any_means.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/En-au-by_any_means.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cs",
      "lang": "Czech",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "zuby nehty"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "keinoja kaihtamatta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "de toute façon"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "de toute manière"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "senza esclusione di colpi"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "in tutte le maniere"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "in qualunque modo"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "por todos los medios"
    }
  ],
  "word": "by any means"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.