some

 
Pronunciation: /sʌm, s(ə)m/

determiner

  • 1an unspecified amount or number of: I made some money running errands he played some records for me
  • 2used to refer to someone or something that is unknown or unspecified: she married some newspaper magnate twice her age there must be some mistake he’s in some kind of trouble
  • 3(used with a number) approximately: some thirty different languages are spoken
  • 4(pronounced stressing ‘some’) a considerable amount or number of: he went to some trouble I’ve known you for some years now
  • 5(pronounced stressing ‘some’) at least a small amount or number of: he liked some music but generally wasn’t musical
  • 6(pronounced stressing ‘some’) expressing admiration of something notable: that was some goal
  • used ironically to express disapproval or disbelief: Mr Power gave his stock reply. Some help! not that Jennifer would ever be on the dole. Some chance of that

pronoun

  • 1an unspecified number or amount of people or things: here are some of our suggestions if you want whisky I’ll give you some
  • 2(pronounced stressing ‘some’) at least a small amount or number of people or things: surely some have noticed

adverb

North American informal
  • to some extent; quite a lot: he needs feeding up some

Phrases

and then some

informal and plenty more than that: we got our money’s worth and then some

some few

see few

some little

a considerable amount of: she lingered for some little time

Origin:

Old English sum, of Germanic origin, from an Indo-European root shared by Greek hamōs 'somehow' and Sanskrit sama 'any, every'