else
//ɛls//
Definitions
1.Other; in addition to previously mentioned items.
- When all else fails, read the instructions.
- Whatever else she may be, she is not a surgeon.
- The instructor is busy. Can anyone else help me?
1.Otherwise, if not.
- How else (= in what other way) can it be done?
- I'm busy Friday; when else (= what other time) works for you?
- The crust of ice on the else rippling brook was so transparent, and so thin in texture, that the lively water might of its own free will have stopped, in Tom’s glad mind it had, to look upon the lovely morning.
1.For otherwise; or else.
- Then the Wronskian of f and g must be nonzero, else they could not be linearly independent.
- He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought, and his first experience taught him an unforgetable lesson. It is true, it was a vicarious experience, else he would not have lived to profit by it.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #373
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Very common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Common
Etymology
From Middle English ells, elles, from Old English elles (“other, otherwise, different”), from Proto-West Germanic *alljas, from Proto-Germanic *aljas (“of another, of something else”), genitive of *aljaz (“other”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos, from *h₂el- (“other”).