whatsoever

• what-so-ever
• whatsomever (archaic)
• whatsoe're (obsolete)

From Middle English whatsoever. By surface analysis, what +‎ so +‎ ever.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌwɒtsəʊˈɛvə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌ(h)wʌtsoʊˈɛvɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ)

whatsoever

1. (formal or literary) Whatever.

   The building may be used for whatsoever purpose the tenant desires.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 587:

     […] In whatſoever ſhape he lurk, […]

The word is sometimes divided by tmesis: “What things soever ye desire”. (King James Version, Mark 11:24)

whatsoever (not comparable)

1. In any way; at all; whatever.

   He gave me no answer whatsoever.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 1:

     In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.

   • 2019, Dierdre Nicole Green, “'I'm the Bishop!' and other Reflections”, in A Place to Belong, Deseret Book, →ISBN, page 141:

     ...my father's role as the ecclesiastical leader of our ward gave me no license whatsoever to expect obedience from my agemates?

whatsoever

1. (archaic or literary) Whatever.

   Whatsoever you seek, you will find.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 31:16:

     Whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

   • c. 1613–1621, Francis Bacon, The judicial charge upon the commission of Oyer and Terminer held for the verge of the Court

     […] I must require you to use diligence in presenting especially those purloinings and imbezlements, which are of plate, vessel, or whatsoever within the King's house.

• “whatsoever”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “whatsoever”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.