else

[ els ]

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.

adverb

1. if not (usually preceded by or ):

   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?

else

/ ɛls /

determiner

1. in addition; more

   there is nobody else here

2. other; different

   where else could he be?

adverb

1. or else
   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!

Grammar Note

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of else¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of else¹

Old English elles, genitive of el- strange, foreign; related to Old High German eli- other, Gothic alja, Latin alius, Greek allos

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. or else, or suffer the consequences:

   Do what I say, or else.

More idioms and phrases containing else

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

Example Sentences

This is a great chance to step out of the supporting-someone-else role and shine on her own.

From The Daily Beast

And there are also a few obvious-to-everybody-else explanations for the tendency.

From The Daily Beast

Everything else-even endowments given by private persons a few years before the Act was passed-was swept away.

From Project Gutenberg

He wandered else-whither, and came to something afterwards, poor Spaen.

From Project Gutenberg

You deliberately set out to marry, or else-how tie some emotional cable onto me.

From Project Gutenberg

This way shalt thou leave, other-else thou shalt go it on thy foot, for wit thou well thy horse shall be slain.

From Project Gutenberg

Many of the original settlers have died; yet, like people else-where, their offspring outnumber those deceased.

From Project Gutenberg