somebody

See also: some-body and some body

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

some +‎ body

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmbədɪ/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmbʌdi/, /ˈsʌmbədi/, /ˈsʌmbɑdi/
Audio (US) (file)

Pronoun

somebody

Some unspecified person.
Somebody has to clean this mess up.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

someone

Related terms

nobody
everybody
anybody
somewhere
something

Translations

some unspecified person

Arabic: أَحَد‎ (ar) m (ʾaḥad); as a subject, the participle of the verb is also used, e.g. سَأَلَ سائِلٌ (saʾala sāʾilun, “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)
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)
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 somebodies)

A recognised or important person, a celebrity.
I'm tired of being a nobody – I want to be a somebody.