different between anyone vs someone

English

Alternative forms

• any one

Etymology

any +? one

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ni?w?n/, /?æni?w?n/

Pronoun

anyone

1. Any person; anybody.

   Almost anyone can change a light bulb.

   • 1891, George Bernard Shaw, Quintessence of Ibsenism

     The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.

Synonyms

• anybody

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

some + one

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?s?mw?n/
• Hyphenation: some?one

Pronoun

someone

1. Some person.

   Can someone help me, please?

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

Abbreviations

Some translation dictionaries have used the abbreviation s.o. or so for someone.

Translations

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

Related terms

• no one
• everyone
• anyone
• somewhere
• something

Anagrams

• neosome, onesome