English
something
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈsʌmθɪŋ/, [ˈsɐmθɪŋ]
  • (America) IPA: /ˈsʌmθɪŋ/, [ˈsʌn̪θɪŋ], sometimes reduced to IPAchar [ˈsʌʔm̩] or IPAchar [ˈsʌɾ̃ɪŋ], or even monosyllabically to IPAchar [sʌ̃ː] or IPAchar [sʌɪŋ]
  • (Australia) IPA: /ˈsamθɪŋ/, [ˈsämθɪŋ]
Pronoun
  1. An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.
    I must have forgotten to pack something, but I can't think what.
    I have something for you in my bag.
    I have a feeling something good is going to happen today.
  2. (colloquial, of someone or something) A quality to a moderate degree.
    The performance was something of a disappointment.
    That child is something of a genius.
  3. (colloquial, of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.
    She has a certain something.
  4. (colloquial, often with really or quite) Somebody who or something that is superlative or notable in some way.
    He's really something! I've never heard such a great voice.
    She's quite something. I can't believe she would do such a mean thing.
    - Some marmosets are less than six inches tall.
    - Well, isn't that something?
Synonyms
  • (unspecified thing) sth (especially in dictionaries)
  • (quality that is difficult to specify) je ne sais quoi
Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Portuguese: algo mais
Related terms
Adjective

something (not comparable)

  1. Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.
Adverb

something (not comparable)

  1. (degree) Somewhat; to a degree.
    The baby looks something like his father.
  2. (degree, colloquial) To a high degree.
Verb

something (somethings, present participle somethinging; past and past participle somethinged)

  1. Applied to an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song.
    • 1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes
      He didn’t apply for it for a long time, and then there was a hitch about it, and it was somethinged—vetoed, I believe she said.
    • 2003, George Angel, “Allegoady,” in Juncture, Lara Stapleton and Veronica Gonzalez edd.
      She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.
    • 2005, Floyd Skloot, A World of Light
      “Oh how we somethinged on the hmmm hmm we were wed. Dear, was I ever on the stage?”
Noun

something (plural somethings)

  1. An object whose nature is yet to be defined.
  2. An object whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g., from words of a song. Also used to refer to an object earlier indefinitely referred to as 'something' (pronoun sense).
    • 1999, Nicholas Clapp, The Road to Ubar
      What was the something the pilot saw, the something worth killing for?
    • 2004, Theron Q Dumont, The Master Mind
      Moreover, in all of our experience with these sense impressions, we never lose sight of the fact that they are but incidental facts of our mental existence, and that there is a Something Within which is really the Subject of these sense reports—a Something to which these reports are presented, and which receives them.
    • 2004, Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives
      She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.


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