else

UK: /ˈɛls/ US: /ɛls/ ,(els)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

else /ɛls/   adj. [after words like who, what, when, how, etc. in questions;
after pronouns like someone, anything, no one, much, etc.]

1. other than those persons or things mentioned:
   What else could I do? I would have eaten anything else.
2. in addition to persons or things mentioned: Who else was there?
3. other (used in the possessive after a pronoun and before the noun that is possessed):
   someone else's money.

adv. 

4. if not:
   [or + ~] Watch your step, or else you'll slip.
5. otherwise:
   How else could I have acted?

Idioms

6. Idioms or else, or suffer the consequences:
   Do exactly what I say, or else.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

else  (els), adj. 

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.

adv. 

4. if not (usually prec. by or):
   It's a macaw, or else I don't know birds.
5. in some other way;
   otherwise:
   How else could I have acted?
6. at some other place or time:
   Where else might I find this book?
7. Idioms or else, or suffer the consequences:
   Do what I say, or else.

• bef. 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; compare eldritch) + -es -s¹

Usage

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.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

else / ɛls/ determiner (postpositive; used after an indefinite pronoun or an interrogative)

1. in addition; more: there is nobody else here
2. other; different: where else could he be?

adverb

1. or else ⇒ 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!

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