somepron/sʌm/

• 1

  A certain number (multiple but not all).

  • Some enjoy spicy food, others prefer it milder.
  • Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.
• 2

  An indefinite quantity.

  • Can I have some of them?
• 3

  An indefinite amount; a part. Used mostly with abstract and nonliving objects.

  • Please give me some of the cake.
  • Everyone is wrong some of the time.
• 4

  obsoleteSomeone, a certain person.

  • Euery counseller extolleth counsell; but there is some that counselleth for himselfe.

somedet/sʌm/

• 1

  A nonzero, unspecified proportion of (a bounded set of countable things): at least two.

  • Near-synonym: any
  • Some people like camping.
• 2

  A nonzero, unspecified quantity or number of (an unbounded set of countable things).

  • Near-synonym: any
  • Would you like some grapes?
• 3

  An unspecified amount of (something uncountable).

  • Near-synonym: any
  • Would you like some water?
• 4

  A certain, an unspecified or unknown.

  • I've just met some guy who said he knew you.
  • The sequence S converges to zero for some initial value v.
• 5

  A considerable quantity or number of.

  • He had edited the paper for some years.
  • He stopped working some time ago.
• 6

  Approximately, about (with a number).

  • She has worked at the company for some thirty years now. (31 and two months, to be exact.)
  • There were only some three or four cars in the lot at the time.
• 7

  Emphasizing a number.

  • She has worked at the company for some five years now! How remarkable!
• 8

  informalA remarkable.

  • He is some acrobat!
  • That was some speech you gave!

someadv/sʌm/

• 1

  Of a measurement: approximately, roughly.

  • I guess he must have weighed some 90 kilos.
  • Some 30,000 spectators witnessed the feat.
• 2

  dialectalTo a certain extent, or for a certain period.

  • They walked some and talked some.
• 3

  dialectalSomewhat, a little.

  • I felt some better and continued taking the preparation through all that day, still ad libitum, and by evening, twenty-four hours after I began its use, felt considerably improved.
  • Have felt some better to-day than yesterday but not quite normal. A little nervous all day. Slept better than previous night, but not so well as usual, for about 7 hrs.