someone

English

Alternative forms

• some one (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmwʌn/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmwʌn
• Hyphenation: some‧one
• Rhymes: -ʌn

Pronoun

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

• 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

• anybody, anyone, somebody
• Some translation dictionaries have used the abbreviation s.o. or so for someone.

Translations

some person

• Afrikaans: iemand (af)
• American Sign Language: 1@InsideNeckhigh-FingerUpPalmBack CirclesHoriz
• Arabic: أَحَد (ar) (ʔaḥad)
• Armenian: մեկը (hy) (mekə), ինչ-որ մեկը (inčʻ-or mekə)
• Asturian: daquién (ast)
• Azerbaijani: kimsə (az), kim isə (az)
• Belarusian: хто́сьці (xtósʹci), хтось (xtosʹ), не́хта (njéxta)
• Bengali: কেউ একটা (bn) (keu ekṭa)
• Bulgarian: някой (njakoj)
• Catalan: algú (ca), qualcú (ca)
• Chamicuro: ana'shanaye
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 有人 (jau⁵ jan⁴)

  Mandarin: 有人 (zh) (yǒurén), 某人 (zh) (mǒurén), 誰 / 谁 (zh) (shéi, shuí)

• Cornish: nebonan
• Czech: někdo (cs)
• Danish: nogen (da), en eller anden c
• Dutch: iemand (nl)
• Esperanto: iu (eo)
• Estonian: keegi (et)
• Finnish: joku (fi)
• French: quelqu’un (fr)
• Friulian: ciertun
• Galician: alguén (gl)
• German: jemand (de), einer (de)

  Alemannic German: epper, ebber

• Greek: κάποιος (el) (kápoios)

  Ancient: τις (tis)

• Hebrew: מִישֶׁהוּ (míshehu)
• Hindi: कोई (hi) (koī)
• Hungarian: valaki (hu)
• Icelandic: einhver (is)
• Ido: ulu (io)
• Indonesian: seseorang (id)
• Interlingua: alicuno, alcuno
• Italian: qualcuno (it)
• Japanese: 誰か (だれか, dareka), 或る人 (あるひと, aru hito)
• Kapampangan: ninuman, ninu ka, ating tau
• Kazakh: біреу (bıreu)
• Korean: 누군가 (nugun'ga), 어떤 사람 (eotteon saram)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: یەکێک (yekêk), کەسێک (kesêk)

• Latgalian: kaids
• Latin: aliquis (la) m or f, aliquid n, quidam (la) m or f, quidam (la) n, quiddam n, quaedam f
• Latvian: kāds (lv)
• Lenape:

  Unami: awèn

• Lithuanian: kažkas
• Macedonian: некој (nekoj)
• Malay: seseorang
• Marathi: कोणी (koṇī), कोणी तरी (koṇī tarī)
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: кӧ (kö), ала-кӧ (ala-kö), иктаж (iktaž)

• Mirandese: alguien
• Norman: tchitch'un
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: noen (no)

  Nynorsk: nokon, einkvan m, eikor f

• Occitan: qualqu'un (oc)
• Old English: man (ang), sum mann, hwā
• Old Prussian: aīnunts
• Pennsylvania German: ebber
• Persian: کسی (fa) (kasi), یکی (fa) (yeki) (informal)
• Plautdietsch: wäa
• Polish: ktoś (pl)
• Portuguese: alguém (pt)
• Romani: varekon
• Romanian: cineva (ro)
• Russian: кто́-то (ru) (któ-to), кто-нибу́дь (ru) (kto-nibúdʹ), не́кто (ru) (nékto), кто́-либо (ru) (któ-libo), кое-кто́ (ru) (koje-któ)
• Scottish Gaelic: cuideigin (gd), (male) duin'-eigin, (male) feareigin, (female) tè-eigin
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: (Bosnian, Serbian) неко m, (Croatian) нетко m

  Roman: (Bosnian, Serbian) neko (sh) m, (Croatian) netko m

• Slovak: niekto (sk), dakto, voľakto
• Slovene: nekdó (sl)
• Spanish: alguien (es), alguno (es)
• Swedish: någon (sv)
• Tajik: ким-кӣ (kim-ki)
• Talysh: ای نفری (i nafari)
• Telugu: ఎవరో (evarō)
• Thai: บางคน (baang-kon)
• Turkish: biri (tr)
• Ukrainian: хтось (uk) (xtosʹ), хто-не́будь (uk) (xto-nébudʹ)
• Uzbek: kimsa (uz)
• Vietnamese: ai đó
• Volapük: ek (vo)
• Welsh: rhywun (cy) m
• Yiddish: עמעצער (emetser)

Noun

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.

Related terms

• no one
• everyone
• anyone
• somewhere
• something

References

• “someone”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• neosome, onesome