else

American  

[els] / ɛls /

adjective

1. other than the persons or things mentioned or implied.

   What else could I have done?

2. in addition to the persons or things mentioned or implied.

   Who else was there?

3. other or in addition (used in the possessive following an indefinite pronoun).

   someone else's money.

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adverb

1. if not (usually preceded byor ).

   It's a macaw, or else I don't know birds.

2. in some other way; otherwise.

   How else could I have acted?

3. at some other place or time.

   Where else might I find this book?

idioms

1. or else, or suffer the consequences.

   Do what I say, or else.

else British  

/ ɛls /

determiner

1. in addition; more

   there is nobody else here

2. other; different

   where else could he be?

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adverb

1. 1. if not, then

      go away or else I won't finish my work today

   2. or something terrible will result: used as a threat

      sit down, or else!

else More Idioms  

1. see in someone's (else's) shoes; or else; something else; something else again.

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Grammar

The possessive forms of somebody else, everybody else, etc., are somebody else's, everybody else's, the forms somebody's else, everybody's else being considered nonstandard in present-day English. One exception is the possessive for who else, which is occasionally formed as whose else when a noun does not immediately follow: Is this book yours? Whose else could it be? No, it's somebody else's.

Etymology

Origin of else

before 1000; Middle English, Old English elles (cognate with Old High German elles ), equivalent to ell- other (cognate with Gothic aljis, Latin alius, Old Irish aile Greek állos, Armenian ayl other; eldritch ) + -es -s 1

Example Sentences

“I think it’s ludicrous that the city might turn it into something else. While they’re at it, why don’t they make the Hemingway house a Vrbo?”

From The Wall Street Journal

“Everything became so difficult that she hid the basket away. I know she didn’t even want to look at it, let alone have anyone else see it.”

From Los Angeles Times

I never felt as if I wished I could be reading something else.

From Los Angeles Times

Look, I hope that I’m building towards something else extraordinary in the future, and it’s like a new mission with each film and each story and each character.

From Los Angeles Times

And it would just be a sin to walk onto someone else’s set and start to look over their shoulder and check their homework and sort of impose yourself on that process.

From Los Angeles Times