sometime

[ suhm-tahym ]
See synonyms for sometime on Thesaurus.com
adverb
  1. at some indefinite or indeterminate point of time: He will arrive sometime next week.

  2. at an indefinite future time: Come to see me sometime.

  1. Archaic. sometimes; on some occasions.

  2. Archaic. at one time; formerly.

adjective
  1. having been formerly; former: The diplomat was a sometime professor of history at Oxford.

  2. being so only at times or to some extent: Traveling so much, he could never be more than a sometime husband.

  1. that cannot be depended upon regarding affections or loyalties: He was well rid of his sometime girlfriend.

Origin of sometime

1
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at some, time

usage note For sometime

The adverb sometime is written as one word: He promised to paint the garage sometime soon. The two-word form some time means “an unspecified interval or period of time”: It will take some time for the wounds to heal.

Words that may be confused with sometime

Words Nearby sometime

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sometime in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for sometime

sometime

/ (ˈsʌmˌtaɪm) /


adverb
  1. at some unspecified point of time

adjective
  1. (prenominal) having been at one time; former: the sometime President

  2. (prenominal) US occasional; infrequent

usage For sometime

The form sometime should not be used to refer to a fairly long period of time: he has been away for some time (not for sometime)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012