sometime
Americanadverb
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at some indefinite or indeterminate point of time.
He will arrive sometime next week.
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at an indefinite future time.
Come to see me sometime.
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Archaic. sometimes; on some occasions.
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Archaic. at one time; formerly.
adjective
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having been formerly; former.
The diplomat was a sometime professor of history at Oxford.
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being so only at times or to some extent.
Traveling so much, he could never be more than a sometime husband.
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that cannot be depended upon regarding affections or loyalties.
He was well rid of his sometime girlfriend.
adverb
adjective
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(prenominal) having been at one time; former
the sometime President
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(prenominal) occasional; infrequent
Spelling
The adverb sometime is written as one word: He promised to paint the garage sometime soon. The two-word form some time means “an unspecified interval or period of time”: It will take some time for the wounds to heal.
Usage
The form sometime should not be used to refer to a fairly long period of time: he has been away for some time (not for sometime )
Etymology
Origin of sometime
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“After Mama died, my daddy left us for a while,” I said, mindful not to tell her too much, lest she go and use it against me sometime.
From Literature
Given all that, he said, “my life expectancy is maybe this summer. I expect to be checking out from this domain sometime this summer.”
From Los Angeles Times
Morgan healthcare conference today that Phase 2 study results on the long-acting GLP1 and amylin drugs will be reported at major scientific conferences, sometime this year.
From Barron's
Residents aren’t likely to know the final construction budget—and whether the rebuilding will happen—until sometime in the summer.
She had received a full-length down bathrobe from my stepfather sometime in the late 1970s.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
