Something vs Phenomenon - What's the difference?
something | phenomenon |
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= (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.
Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.
(degree) Somewhat; to a degree.
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
, chapter=5, title= (degree, colloquial) To a high degree.
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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]
* 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]
* 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]
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= 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]
* 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]
* 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]
An observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence.
* 1900 , , The Making of Religion , ch. 1:
* 2007 , "
Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.
* 1662 , Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World , First Day:
A fact or event considered very unusual, curious, or astonishing by those who witness it.
* 1816 , , The Antiquary—Volume I , ch. 18:
A wonderful or very remarkable person or thing.
* 1839 , , Nicholas Nickleby , ch. 23:
* 1888 , , "The Phantom Rickshaw":
An experienced object whose constitution reflects the order and conceptual structure imposed upon it by the human mind (especially by the powers of perception and understanding).
* 1900 , , "Comparison of Some Views of Spencer and Kant," Mind , vol. 9, no. 34, p. 234:
* 1912 , , "Is There a Cognitive Relation?" The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods , vol. 9, no. 9, p. 232:
As nouns the difference between something and phenomenon
is that something is an object whose nature is yet to be defined while phenomenon is an observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence.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 an adverb something
is (degree) somewhat; to a degree.As a verb something
is applied to an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, eg from words of a song.something
English
Pronoun
(English Pronouns)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.}}
Synonyms
* (unspecified thing) sth (especially in dictionaries)Derived terms
* somethingthAdjective
(-)Adverb
(-)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.}}
Derived terms
(to a high degree) * something awful * something bad * something fierce * something good * something terribleStatistics
*Verb
(en verb)- 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.
- She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.
- “Oh how we somethinged on the hmmm hmm we were wed. Dear, was I ever on the stage?”
Noun
(en noun)The new masters and commanders, passage=From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.
- What was the something' the pilot saw, the ' something worth killing for?
- 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.
- She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.
phenomenon
English
(wikipedia phenomenon)Alternative forms
* phaenomenon, (archaic) * phainomenon * (qualifier)Noun
(phenomena)- The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon , arrived unawares at a probably correct conclusion.
Ask the Experts: Hurricanes," USA Today , 7 Nov. (retrieved 16 Jan. 2009):
- Hurricanes are a meteorological phenomenon .
- I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains, for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof, as they do about the Earth, they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things, which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon, and in a word, would some way or other change its Phœnomenon .
- The phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, upon the opposite bank of the glen, again presented itself to the eye of the watchman. . . . He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder.
- "This, sir," said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward, "this is the infant phenomenon —Miss Ninetta Crummles."
- But, all the same, you're a phenomenon', and as queer a ' phenomenon as you are a blackguard.
- Every "phenomenon " must be, at any rate, partly subjective or dependent on the subject.
- The Kantian phenomenon is the real as we are compelled to think it.