Something

//ˈsʌm.θɪŋ// adj, adv, noun, pron, verb, slang

adj, adv, noun, pron, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An object whose nature is yet to be defined.

    "Yea, ’t is true; I ’d know thee by thine eyen, that are gray, and thoughtful, and dark with a something that lies behind the colour of them,—and shining by the light of a lamp lit somewhere within."

  2. 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).

    "What was the something the pilot saw, the something worth killing for?"

Verb
  1. 1
    Designates an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song. colloquial

    "1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0140439234&id=IOZeJi7U4eEC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&sig=LW2P-uKmoZabe70ZKnIHIMQLXlw 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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify. not-comparable

    ""Very poetic." They came to a halt before the outer door. "It's very something," Rusty said wistfully. "How do you do it?""

Adverb
  1. 1
    Somewhat; to a degree. not-comparable

    "The baby looks something like his father."

  2. 2
    Used to adverbialise a following adjective colloquial, especially, not-comparable

    "I miss them something terrible/rotten. (I miss them terribly)"

Pronoun
  1. 1
    An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing. indefinite, pronoun

    "I must have forgotten to pack something, but I can't think what."

  2. 2
    A quality to a moderate degree. colloquial, indefinite, pronoun

    "The performance was something of a disappointment."

  3. 3
    A talent or quality that is difficult to specify. colloquial, indefinite, pronoun

    "She has a certain something."

  4. 4
    Somebody who or something that is superlative or notable in some way. colloquial, indefinite, often, pronoun

    "He's really something! I've never heard such a great voice."

Synonyms

All synonyms
-oddaffairan existenceanyanythingarticle

Example

More examples

"It would be something I'd have to program."

Etymology

From Middle English somþyng, some-thing, som thing, sum thinge, sum þinge, from Old English sum þing (literally “some thing”), equivalent to some + thing. Compare Old English āwiht (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”), Swedish någonting (“something”, literally “some thing, any thing”).

Related phrases

a little of something goes a long waybe onto somethinggive someone something to think aboutleave something to be desiredlook like something the cat brought inlook like something the cat dragged inlook like something the cat's dragged inmake something ofor somethingslip into something more comfortablesome something or othersomething and nothing

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.