Wiktionary

someone

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English sum on, sum one, sum oon, equivalent to some +‎ one.

    Pronunciation

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    Pronoun

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    someone

    1. One or some person of unspecified or indefinite identity.
      Can someone help me, please?
      Can you get me someone more knowledgeable?

    Usage notes

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    • Logically related to anyone, everyone, and no one. Becomes no one via negation.
      Did anyone help with the clean-up effort?
      Yes, someone helped yesterday, but no one did today because everyone was too busy.

    Synonyms

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    Translations

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    Noun

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    someone (plural someones)

    1. A partially specified but unnamed person.
      Do you need a gift for that special someone?
      • 2013, James Crosswhite, Deep Rhetoric: Philosophy, Reason, Violence, Justice, Wisdom, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 213:
        His ultimate concern is with being and beings, with saying something about something and not with the someones who say it and hear it—and not even with the someones whose beings are in conflict about beings in their being.
      • year unknown, T A Smallwood, Reflections Of A Murder, Lulu.com →ISBN, page 2
        It had never happened, it wasn't that there hadn't been any 'someones', there had actually been numerous 'someones', but not one that had gotten between him and his work.
      • 2010, Michael E Kanell, Michael E. Kanell, Mike Kimel, Presimetrics: What the Facts Tell Us About How the Presidents Measure Up On the Issues We Care About, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
        Or rather, to someone. Many someones, in fact. But which someones? Well, the someones that benefited while wage controls were in place had to be people for whom salary was not the primary form of income.
    3. An important person.
      He thinks he has become someone.
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    References

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    • “someone”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

    Anagrams

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