some

pron

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. (obsolete)Someone, a certain person.

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

det

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

   “Near-synonym: any”

   “Some people like camping.”

   “Many people, especially some evangelical Christians, have been less than optimistic about the Potter influence.”

   “Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.”

   “Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.”

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

   “Near-synonym: any”

   “Would you like some grapes?”

   “The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.[…]Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.”

   “In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.”

3. An unspecified amount of (something uncountable).

   “Near-synonym: any”

   “Would you like some water?”

   “After some persuasion, he finally agreed.”

   “It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, jump upon a tram, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.”

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.”

   “By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.”

   “Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.”

5. A considerable quantity or number of.

   “He had edited the paper for some years.”

   “He stopped working some time ago.”

   “[…] I took it, in the hope that it was not intended for early use, and would not be missed for some time.”

   “We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.”

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.”

   “What other natural experiments might we have to test climate sensitivity? Another one that happens every year is the change in seasons. Winter predictably follows summer, being some fifteen degrees colder in the Northern Hemisphere and five degrees colder than summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The reason the Southern Hemisphere has a smaller seasonal cycle is because it has much more ocean than land,[…]”

   “the local police, who, with the investigator, reportedly placed a compass near the two signs that had rattled and found a deviation of some fifteen degrees. Placed next to the Renault in which they had come, the compass showed a deviation of only four degrees, but there was no deviation at all near the sign that had not rattled.”

7. Emphasizing a number.

   “She has worked at the company for some five years now! How remarkable!”

8. (informal)A remarkable.

   “He is some acrobat!”

   “That was some speech you gave!”

adv

1. (not-comparable)Of a measurement: approximately, roughly.

   “I guess he must have weighed some 90 kilos.”

   “Some 30,000 spectators witnessed the feat.”

   “Some 4,000 acres of land were flooded.”

2. (dialectal, not-comparable)To a certain extent, or for a certain period.

   “They walked some and talked some.”

3. (dialectal, not-comparable)Somewhat, 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.”

   “"She's some better," the pilot said, "but it'll be a long convalescence. Pierre's taking real good care of her. Ongola's a rock, as always, and if Joel would only stop yapping about losing so much cargo..."”

   “It looked some like Muriel, but not enough to be sure by any manner of means.”