Meaning of at any rate in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Adverb
    1. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    US accent

    UK accent

  1. Adverb

    at any rate

    Definitions

    1. used to indicate that a statement explains or supports a previous statement

    Examples

    • « Anyhow, he is dead now »
    • « I think they're asleep »
    • « anyhow, they're quiet »
    • « I don't know what happened to it »
    • « anyway, it's gone »
    • « anyway, there is another factor to consider »
  2. 2. if nothing else (`leastwise' is informal and `leastways' is colloquial)

    Examples

    • « at least he survived »
    • « they felt--at any rate Jim felt--relieved though still wary »
    • « the influence of economists--or at any rate of economics--is far-reaching »

Famous quotes

  • « Whatever universe a professor believes in must at any rate be a universe that lends itself to lengthy discourse. A universe definable in two sentences is something for which the professorial intellect has no use. No faith in anything of that cheap kind! »
    William James
  • « Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life. »
    Samuel Butler
  • « Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents. »
    Ezra Pound
  • « But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is. »
    Alan Watts
  • « At any rate, girls are differently situated. Having no need of deep scientific knowledge, their education is confined more to the ordinary things of the world, the study of the fine arts, and of the manners and dispositions of people. »
    William John Wills

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