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Why do they use 'winning by anywhere' not 'winning everywhere' what is more clear for non native speaker?

Exit polls have Jim Matthews winning by anywhere... from a nine to 12 percent margin of victory.

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2 Answers 2

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You are parsing the sentence incorrectly.

It is not:

(winning by anywhere) (from X to Y)

But:

(winning) (by anywhere from X to Y)

In other words:

Exit polls have Jim Matthews winning [and the votes for him exceed those for the others] by anywhere from a nine to 12 percent margin of victory.


Further, anywhere from is not being used to describe a place but a number range.

These two expressions are functionally equivalent:

anywhere from a nine to 12 percent margin
a nine to 12 percent margin

The use of anywhere from only serves to provide emphasis.


Taking both into account, you could shorten the entire sentence into something like this:

Exit polls have Jim Matthews winning by a 9–12 percent margin.

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The expression 'anywhere from [some quantity or number] to [some other quantity or number]' means 'an unspecified, unknown, or unstated quantity between a lower limit and an upper limit'. Since each such quantity is a single one, 'anywhere' is used, and not 'everywhere'. Repairing your TV could cost anywhere between $50 and $200, depending on what went wrong.

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