somebody

See also: some-body and some body

English

Alternative forms

• some body, some-body (obsolete)
• somebuddy, sombuddy, sombudy, sumbody, sumbuddy (eye dialect)
• sby (abbreviation)

Etymology

some +‎ body

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmbədɪ/, /ˈsʌmbɒdɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmbʌdi/, /ˈsʌmbədi/, /ˈsʌmbɑdi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Pronoun

somebody

1. Some unspecified person.

   Somebody has to clean this mess up.

Usage notes

Logically related to everybody and nobody. Becomes nobody via negation.

Synonyms

• someone

Derived terms

• somebody else

 

Related terms

• nobody
• everybody
• anybody
• somewhere
• something

Translations

some unspecified person

• Arabic: أَحَد (ar) m (ʔaḥad); as a subject, the participle of the verb is also used, e.g. سَأَلَ سائِلٌ (saʔala sāʔilun, “somebody asked”, literally “an asker asked”)

  Moroccan Arabic: شي حد (ši ḥadd), شي واحد (ši wāḥed)

• Armenian: մեկը (hy) (mekə)
• Asturian: daquién (ast)
• Azerbaijani: kimsə (az)
• Belarusian: хто́сьці (xtósʹci), хтось (xtosʹ), не́хта (njéxta)
• Bulgarian: някой (njakoj)
• Burmese: တစ်ယောက်ယောက် (tacyauk-yauk), တစ်စုံတစ်ယောက် (my) (taccumtacyauk)
• Catalan: algú (ca)
• Chamicuro: ana'shanaye
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 有人 (zh) (yǒurén), 某人 (zh) (mǒurén)

• Cornish: nebonan
• Czech: někdo (cs) m
• Dalmatian: čertjoin
• Danish: nogen (da)
• Dutch: iemand (nl)
• Erzya: конаяк (konajak)
• Faroese: onkur
• Finnish: joku (fi)
• French: quelqu’un (fr)
• Galician: alguén (gl)
• Georgian: ვიღაც (viɣac), ვინმე (vinme)
• German: jemand (de); einer (de); (colloquial) wer (de)
• Greek: κάποιος (el) (kápoios)

  Ancient: τις (tis)

• Hebrew: מִישֶׁהוּ (míshehu)
• Hindi: कोई (hi) (koī)
• Hungarian: valaki (hu)
• Icelandic: einhver (is) m
• 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)
• Ladin: zachei
• Latin: aliquis (la) m or f, aliquid n
• Lithuanian: kažkas
• Macedonian: некој m (nekoj)
• Mari:

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

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

  Bokmål: noen (no)

  Nynorsk: einkvan m, eikor f, nokon

• Old English: sum mann, sum
• Old Prussian: aīnunts
• Persian: کسی (fa) (kasi)
• Polish: ktoś (pl) m
• Portuguese: alguém (pt)
• Romanian: cineva (ro)
• Russian: кто́-то (ru) (któ-to), кто-нибу́дь (ru) (kto-nibúdʹ), не́кто (ru) (nékto), кто-ли́бо (ru) (kto-líbo), кое-кто́ (ru) (koje-któ)
• Scottish Gaelic: cuideigin, (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) m, dakto m, voľakto, ktosi
• Slovene: nekdó (sl)
• Spanish: alguien (es)
• Swedish: någon (sv)
• Thai: บางคน (baang-kon)
• Turkish: kimse (tr)
• Ukrainian: хтось (uk) (xtosʹ), хто-не́будь (uk) (xto-nébudʹ), де́хто (uk) (déxto)
• Urdu: کوئی (koī)
• Vietnamese: ai đó
• Walloon: ene sakî (wa), kéconk (wa)
• Welsh: rhywun (cy) m
• Yiddish: עמעצער (emetser)

Noun

somebody (plural somebodys or somebodies)

1. Any person.
   • 1974, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture, Agriculture and the Fuel Crisis: Hearings..., page 88:

     So there, I know, was somebody or a combination of somebodys who did not know what the heck they were doing or dealing with.

2. A recognised or important person, a celebrity.

   I'm tired of being a nobody – I want to be a somebody.