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All vs Something - What's the difference?

all | something |

In degree terms the difference between all and something

is that all is so much while something is somewhat; to a degree.

As a determiner all

is every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).

As a conjunction all

is although.

As an initialism ALL

is initialism of lang=en.

As a pronoun something is

an uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.

As an adjective something is

having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.

As a verb something is

applied to an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song.

all

English

Adverb

(-)
  • (degree) (intensifier).
    • You’ve got it all wrong.
    She was all , “Whatever.”
  • Apiece; each.
    • The score was 30 all when the rain delay started.
  • * 1878 , Gerard Manley Hopkins,
    • His locks like all a ravel-rope’s-end,
    With hempen strands in spray
  • (degree) So much.
    • Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.
  • (dialect, Pennsylvania) All gone; dead.
    • The butter is all .
  • (obsolete, poetic) even; just
  • * Spenser
    • All as his straying flock he fed.
  • * Gay
    • A damsel lay deploring / All on a rock reclined.

    Synonyms

    * completely

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).
  • :
  • *
  • *:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
  • *, chapter=1
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path
  • Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
  • : (= through the whole of the day and the whole of the night.)
  • : (= from the beginning of the year until now.)
  • Everyone.
  • :
  • Everything.
  • :
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}
  • (lb) Any.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:without all remedy
  • Only; alone; nothing but.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.

    • Noun

  • (with a possessive pronoun) Everything possible.
    • She gave her all , and collapsed at the finish line.
  • (countable) The totality of one's possessions.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, pp. 37-8:
    • she therefore ordered Jenny to pack up her alls and begone, for that she was determined she should not sleep that night within her walls.

    Derived terms

    * a bit of all right * after all * all about * all along * all-American * all and sundry * all-around * all around * all at once * All Blacks * all but * all clear * all-comers * all-day * all-embracing * all-encompassing * all fingers and thumbs * all-fire * All Fools' Day * all for * All Hallows * All Hallows' Day * all hands on deck * allheal * all-important * all in * all-in * all in all * all-in wrestling * all-inclusive * all-knowing * all-night * all-nighter * all of a sudden * all one * all one's life's worth * all or nothing * all-out * all over * all-over * all-overish * all over the place * all over with * all-party * all-powerful * all-purpose * all right * all-round * all-rounder * All Saints' Day * allseed * all-seeing * * allsorts * All Souls' Day * allspice * all square * all-star * all systems go * all that * all the best * all the more * all the same * all the way * all-time * all together * all told * all-too-familiar * all-up * all-up service * all up with * all very well * all-weather * and all * and all that * at all * be all ears * be-all and end-all * best of all * bugger all * catchall * coveralls * cure-all * for all * for good and all * fuck all * give one's all * go all the way * in all * know-it-all * most of all * naff all * not all there * not at all * on all fours * once and for all * overalls * sod all * when all is said and done

    Related terms

    * albeit * almighty * almost * already * alright * also * although * altogether * always

    See also

    * any * each * every * everyone * everything * none * some *

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • (obsolete) although
  • * (rfdate) Spenser
    • All they were wondrous loth.

    Statistics

    * 100 English basic words English degree adverbs English indefinite pronouns English plural pronouns English pronouns 1000 English basic words ----

    something

    English

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
    • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.}}
  • (colloquial, of someone or something) A quality to a moderate degree.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.}}
  • (colloquial, of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.
  • (colloquial, often with really) Somebody or something who is superlative in some way.

    • Synonyms

    * (unspecified thing) sth (especially in dictionaries)

    Derived terms

    * somethingth

    Related terms

    * -something * -somethingth * thing * nothing * anything * everything * somebody * someone * somewhere

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.

    • Adverb

    (-)
  • (degree) Somewhat; to a degree.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it.}}
  • (degree, colloquial) To a high degree.
  • *
  • *
  • *

    • Derived terms

    (to a high degree) * something awful * something bad * something fierce * something good * something terrible

    Statistics

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • Applied to an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song.
  • * 1890, [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0140439234&id=IOZeJi7U4eEC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&sig=LW2P-uKmoZabe70ZKnIHIMQLXlw]
    • He didn’t apply for it for a long time, and then there was a hitch about it, and it was somethinged —vetoed, I believe she said.
  • * 2003, George Angel, “Allegoady,” in Juncture, Lara Stapleton and Veronica Gonzalez edd. [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN1887128913&id=qB-D32yV1VAC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&sig=9AYyYLA-MQqTgAbptreoe3VyOzQ]
    • She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.
  • * 2005, Floyd Skloot, A World of Light [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0803243189&id=TEgRGe6FiTkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&sig=zEj4BPQ0eEFkj6LdOI8eRJlZrzE]
    • “Oh how we somethinged on the hmmm hmm we were wed. Dear, was I ever on the stage?”

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An object whose nature is yet to be defined.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=52, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The new masters and commanders , passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
  • An object whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g., from words of a song. Also used to refer to an object earlier indefinitely referred to as 'something' (pronoun sense).
  • * 1999, Nicholas Clapp, The Road to Ubar [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0395957869&id=3ikdzDKkQ04C&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&sig=UNimtwdgeC_w_wqGXfa4LsCDik8]
    • What was the something' the pilot saw, the ' something worth killing for?
  • * 2004, Theron Q Dumont, The Master Mind [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0766185435&id=-n_jW7BVfawC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&sig=ou-CrIyWbKyZQ0s3q0uaJTiHdsI]
    • Moreover, in all of our experience with these sense impressions, we never lose sight of the fact that they are but incidental facts of our mental existence, and that there is a Something' Within which is really the Subject of these sense reports—a ' Something to which these reports are presented, and which receives them.
  • * 2004, Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0060738197&id=rKeKLf7LeXAC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&sig=uAeyLuj-HYk1dLAme_rokCWQITc]
    • She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.
    200 English basic words English autological terms English compound determinatives English degree adverbs English indefinite pronouns English refractory feminine rhymes English third person pronouns 1000 English basic words