Else

Part of speech: adverb, conjunction

Pronunciation: /ɛls/

Definitions

1. Used to refer to a different or additional person, thing, or possibility
2. Used to indicate something further, different, or additional beyond what has already been mentioned
3. Referring to another option, alternative, or distinct subject beyond what is currently being considered

Etymology: "Else" is a surprisingly old word that has kept its basic sense of "other" for more than a thousand years. Its earliest form, Old English "elles," meant "other, otherwise, different," and it descends from a Proto-Germanic form meaning "of another, of something else." That form was a genitive case, a grammatical ending showing possession or source, so the word began life as a phrase along the lines of "of other things." Its relatives reach across the family of languages: Latin "alius" ("other, another"), Ancient Greek "állos" (the same sense), and Gothic "aljis" all trace back to the same ancient root. The word's sense has shifted a little over time, but the core idea of "other" remains. In its earliest uses it was also commonly used on its own to mean "otherwise," and the German and Scandinavian cousins show the same pattern, as in Danish "ellers" ("otherwise") and Swedish "eljes" ("or else"). The sense of "or" that appears in Danish "eller" shows how closely the two ideas were linked in the parent language.

Synonyms: otherwise, alternatively