everybody

everybody — pronoun

1. refers to every person in a group, or to people in general — no matter who they

1.pronounA2
Definition

refers to every person in a group, or to people in general — no matter who they are or how many there are

Example

Priya gave a small gift to everybody in the office.

everybody in + place noun

Not everybody in the class knew the right answer.

not everybody for partial negation

Common collocations
  • everybody + singular verb
  • not everybody
  • almost everybody
  • everybody else
  • everybody in/at/on [place]
Synonyms
  • everyone

    identical in meaning; everyone is slightly more common in formal or written English

Antonyms
  • nobody

    the opposite meaning — no person at all

  • no one

    same as nobody; used interchangeably in most contexts

Grammar Patterns

everybody + singular verb

Usage Note

Always takes a singular verb: 'Everybody is ready', not 'Everybody are ready'. Unlike 'all', 'everybody' cannot be placed before a noun — you can say 'all the students' but not 'everybody the students'.

Common Mistakes

Everybody are here.
Everybody is here.
everybody is grammatically singular even though it refers to many people.
Everybody need to bring a pen.
Everybody needs to bring a pen.
the third-person singular -s is required with everybody.

Synonym discussion

Sense: pronoun/1

Everybody and everyone are interchangeable in virtually all contexts — both refer to 'all people' and take a singular verb. Everyone is slightly more frequent in formal writing, while everybody feels more natural in casual conversation. The word all is broader: it can refer to people or things ('all the books'), and it can be placed before a noun ('all people'), whereas everybody never appears directly before a noun. In everyday speech, 'Everybody likes pizza' sounds more natural than 'All people like pizza', which sounds like a general statement about human nature.

everybody ↗everyone ↗all ↗

Common collocations

Adverbs

  • almost everybody
  • nearly everybody
  • practically everybody

Phrases

  • everybody else
  • everybody's (possessive)
  • everybody who/that

Prepositions

  • everybody in
  • everybody at
  • everybody on

Etymology

English

Formed by combining 'every' with 'body', where 'body' was used from the 13th century onward to mean 'a person' or 'an individual human being'. The word 'everybody' was first recorded in the mid-1500s, following the pattern of older compound pronouns like 'everyone' and 'anybody'.