Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to indicate that you are referring to all the members of a group or all the parts of something and not only some of them.
Record ~ expenditure you make.
...recipes for ~ occasion.
DET: DET sing-n
•
Every is also an adjective.
His ~ utterance will be scrutinized...
ADJ: poss ADJ n
2.
You use ~ in order to say how often something happens or to indicate that something happens at regular intervals.
We were made to attend meetings ~ day...
A burglary occurs ~ three minutes in London...
They meet here ~ Friday morning.
DET
3.
You use ~ in front of a number when you are saying what proportion of people or things something happens to or applies to.
Two out of ~ three Britons already own a video recorder...
About one in ~ 20 people have clinical depression...
DET: out of/in/for DET amount
4.
You can use ~ before some nouns, for example ‘sign’, ‘effort’, ‘reason’, and ‘intention’ in order to emphasize what you are saying.
The Congressional Budget Office says the federal deficit shows ~ sign of getting larger...
I think that there is ~ chance that you will succeed...
Every care has been taken in compiling this list.
? no
DET: DET sing-n emphasis
5.
If you say that someone’s ~ whim, wish, or desire will be satisfied, you are emphasizing that ~thing they want will happen or be provided.
Dozens of servants had catered to his ~ whim.
ADJ: poss ADJ n emphasis
6.
You use ~ in the expressions ~ now and then, ~ now and again, ~ once in a while, and ~ so often in order to indicate that something happens occasionally.
Stir the batter ~ now and then to keep it from separating...
Every so often the horse’s heart and lungs are checked.
PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR with cl
7.
If something happens ~ other day or ~ second day, for example, it happens one day, then does not happen the next day, then happens the day after that, and so on. You can also say that something happens ~ third week, ~ fourth year, and so on.
I went home ~ other week...
PHRASE: PHR after v, PHR with cl
8.
~ bit as good as: see bit
~ which way: see way