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I met everyone.

I met everybody.

Could you please, paraphrase each sentence, so that I could get the difference and right use of the words.

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    They're equivalent, so each "paraphrases" the other. May 31, 2015 at 22:57
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    They mean the same. In American English, everybody is used more often in spoken English, and everyone is used more often in written English. Everybody can be thought of as less formal.
    – user6951
    Jun 1, 2015 at 1:21

2 Answers 2

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Their meaning is almost identical; but not exactly. "Everybody" is often used as a collective, i.e. it describes the whole group of people in question as one unit.

"I met everybody" would therefore be (a little more) correct in a situation where the speaker has met the whole group at the same time (at a party, say).

"Everyone" refers to the members of the group in question as seperate individuals.

"I met everyone" could imply that, over the course of a few days or weeks the speaker has managed to meet every single individual of the group.

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They are, in almost all cases, interchangeable. But, here I paste the answer from MW Dictionary.

The short answer is, there's not much difference! Both of these words mean "every person," and in dictionaries, the meaning of everyone is often given as everybody, and vice versa.

However, it's worth mentioning that many people think everybody is a little more casual (more informal) than everyone. Also, everybody is used more often than everyone in spoken language, which makes sense if it's more informal. Having said this, it's absolutely fine to use either one. You have a choice.

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