different between anybody vs something

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??n.i.b?d.i/, /??n.i.b?.di/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??n.i.b?d.i/, /??n.i.b?.di/, /??n.i.b?.di/

Pronoun

anybody

1. Any one out of an indefinite number of persons; anyone; any person.

2. (informal) A person of some consideration or standing.

Synonyms

• anyone

Derived terms

• anybody who is anybody
• everybody who is anybody

Related terms

• nobody
• everybody
• somebody
• anywhere
• anything
• anyhow

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• somthing (obsolete)
• sumn (eye dialect, AAVE)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s?m???/, [?s?m???]
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?m???/, [?s?n????], (sometimes reduced to [?s?(m)?m?] or [?s?????], or even monosyllabically to [s???] or [s???])
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?sam???/, [?säm???]
• Hyphenation: some?thing

Pronoun

something (indefinite pronoun)

1. An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.

   Synonym: (especially in dictionaries) sth
2. (colloquial, of someone or something) A quality to a moderate degree.
3. (colloquial, of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.

   Synonym: je ne sais quoi

4. (colloquial, often with really or quite) Somebody who or something that is superlative or notable in some way.

Derived terms

• somethingth
• up to something

Related terms

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: samting
• ? Korean: ?? (sseomting)

Translations

Adjective

something (not comparable)

1. Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.

Adverb

something (not comparable)

1. (degree) Somewhat; to a degree.

2. (degree, colloquial) To a high degree.

Derived terms

Verb

something (third-person singular simple present somethings, present participle somethinging, simple 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 [2]

     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. [3]

     She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.

   • 2005, Floyd Skloot, A World of Light [4]

     “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 [5]

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

   • 2004, Theron Q Dumont, The Master Mind [6]

     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 [7]

     She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.