Word.ws English Dictionary

other

Syllables: oth·er/ˈʌðə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ʊðə/

other adjective: see other (determiner) below.

Adjective

other (not comparable)

  1. See other (determiner) below.
    • Pick up the phone and find out who's on the other end.
    Synonyms:
    additional, another
  2. Second.
    • I get paid every other week.
    Synonyms:
    alternate
  3. (formal) Alien.
    • In Matthew's account, the law remains intact, as does virtually everything except that critical belief in Jesus as the Messiah (obviously no small thing), and this is not enough to make Matthew completely other from its Jewish origins.2010 April 20, anonymous author, “Letters”, in Christian Century, volume 127, number 8, page 6
    Synonyms:
    foreign
  4. (formal or puristic) Different.
    • it is inherent, rather, in the revolutionary attempt of the West to externalize the idea of a source of meaning wholly other than what is embodied in human conventions and hierarchies.2001 Fall, Ralph C. Hancock, “The Modern Revolution and the Collapse of Moral Analogy: Tocqueville and Guizot.”, in Perspectives on Political Science, volume 30, number 4, page 213
    Antonyms:
    same
  5. (obsolete) Left, as opposed to right.
    • A diſtaffe in her other hand ſhe had, / Vpon the which ſhe litle ſpinnes, but ſpils, / And faynes to weaue falſe tales and leaſings bad, / To throw amongſt the good, which others had diſprad.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 36, page 351

Noun

other (plural others)

  1. An other, another (person, etc), more often rendered as another.
    • I'm afraid little Robbie does not always play well with others.
    • Show me one other.
  2. The other one; the second of two.
    • One boat is not better than the other.
    • Why not tell one or other of your parents?

Determiner

other

  1. Not the one or ones previously referred to.
    • Earning less than $2,000 a month, I have no other source of income except for gifts from relatives.
    • The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious...1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58

Adverb

other (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Otherwise.
    • I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, Lay down my soul at state; if you think other, Remove your thought;c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • Weigh also, the pretty escape of the disguised attempt of the party that seemed to be in so great peril, who can believe other, then that it was a made matter, to continue a belief, whom they think they have inchaunted at their wills.1655, The Compleat Ambassador or two treatises of the intended marriage of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory, page 321

Verb

other (third-person singular simple present others, present participle othering, simple past and past participle othered)

  1. (transitive) To regard, label, or treat as an “other”, as not part of the same group; to view as different and alien.
    • "Rican" is code for its homonym, "redskin," through which they othered this non-Mexican ethnic group.2005, Kristen A. Myers, Racetalk: racism hiding in plain sight
    • That is, whilst Lesfest organisers are othering women who are not born female (thus producing a kind of lesbian-normativity), the Australian WOMAN Network is othering women who have not had surgical sex reassignment (thus producing a kind of "trans-normativity").2006, Angela Pattatucci Aragon, Challenging lesbian norms
  2. (transitive) To treat as different or separate; segregate; ostracise.
    • In this scenario, the young lady who had spoken had been othered by her peers and her response to my question had been dismissed as invalid despite the fact that she was alright.2007, Christopher Emdin, City University of New York. Urban Education, Exploring the contexts of urban science classrooms

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Other

the Other (plural Others)

  1. Radical alterity or otherness conceived or reified as a separate entity; “other people” altogether in their difference from oneself.
    • In its most fundamental dimension, sacrifice is a “gift of reconciliation” to the Other, destined to appease its desire. Sacrifice conceals the abyss of the Other’s desire, more precisely: it conceals the Other’s lack, inconsistency, “inexistence,” that transpires in this desire. Sacrifice is a...1992, Slavoj Žižek, Enjoy Your Symptom! Jacques Lacan in Hollywood and Out, →ISBN, page 56
    • The transformations of writing bear an ethical as well as an aesthetic or literary significance; writing implies orientation towards the Other in the midst of which a renewal of the self becomes possible.2006, Lisa Guenther, The Gift of the Other: Levinas and the Politics of Reproduction, →ISBN, page 123

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Other

Other

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Other

Other (plural Others)

  1. A male given name from Old Norse, of rare usage, used as an aristocratic heritage familial given name.

other meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

other in Hindi

not the one previously referred to
अन्य anya, दूसरा dūsrā, अलग alag, दूजा dūjā, और aur, बिलग bilag

other in Tamil

not the one previously referred to
வேறு vēṟu

other in Urdu

not the one previously referred to
دوسرا dūsrā, دیگر dīgar

other in Bengali

not the one previously referred to
অন্যান্য ônnênnô
More languagesFewer languages
other in Telugu
వేరే vērē
other in Punjabi
ਹੋਰ hor, ਦੂਜੇ dūje, ਦੂਜੀ dūjī
other in Sanskrit
अन्य॑ ánya
other in Assamese
আন an, বেলেগ beleg
other in Pashto
بل bël, نور nor
other in Arabic
آخَر ʔāḵar, أُخْرَى ʔuḵrā
other in Indonesian
lain
other in Persian
دیگر digar
other in Thai
อื่น ʉ̀ʉn, อื่น ๆ ʉ̀ʉn-ʉ̀ʉn, ต่าง dtàang
other in Vietnamese
khác
other in Myanmar
အခြား a.hkra:

Examples of other in a sentence

  • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
  • He had one hand on the bounce bottle—and he'd never let go of that since he got back to the table—but he had a handkerchief in the other and was swabbing his deadlights with it.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company...
  • “By the way,” Jessamy went on, “what’s your other name?1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 98:

All 40 example sentences with other

Synonyms of other

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of other

Forms of other

Noun
pluralothers
Verb
third-person singular presentothers
present participleothering
past participleothered
pastothered
Proper noun
pluralOthers

Plural of other: others

Origin of other

From Middle English other, from Old English ōþer (“other, second”), from Proto-West Germanic *ą̄þar, *anþar, from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz (“other, second”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énteros (“other”). Cognate with Scots uther, ither (“other”), Old Frisian ōther, ("other"; > North Frisian ouder, öler, üđer, Saterland Frisian uur, West Frisian oar), Old Saxon ōthar, ("other"; > Low German anner), Old Dutch āthar, ("other"; > Afrikaans ander, Dutch ander), Old High German andar, ("other"; > Cimbrian andar, German ander, anderer, Luxembourgish aner, Mòcheno ònder, Yiddish אַנדער (ander)), Old Norse annarr, ("other"; > Danish anden, Faroese annar, Icelandic annar, Jamtish æðnen, ænnen, Norwegian Bokmål annen, Norwegian Nynorsk annan, Swedish annan), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar, “other”), Old Prussian anters, antars (“other, second”), Lithuanian antroks (“other”, pronoun), Latvian otrs, otrais (“second”), Macedonian втор (vtor, “second”), Albanian ndërroj (“to change; to switch; to alternate”), Sanskrit अन्त॑र (ántara, “different”). French autre, Spanish otro, Portuguese outro, etc., all from Latin alter, are false cognates. A true cognate would be Latin anterior.

Calque of French autre (other). Semantic loan from French Autre, principally after French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (also as grand Autre) and philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

From Old Norse Othorere, originating during the Viking occupation of England.

Words formed from other

Phrases with other

112 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with other

Questions about other

What does other mean?
Other means see other (determiner) below.
What is other in Hindi?
Other in Hindi is अन्य (anya), दूसरा (dūsrā), अलग (alag). See Other meaning in Hindi.
How do you use other in a sentence?
Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
What part of speech is other?
Other can be an adjective, a noun, a determiner or an adverb.
How do you pronounce other?
Other is pronounced /ˈʌðə/ (UK).

Words near other in the dictionary

  1. Othelloesque
  2. othematoma
  3. othematomata
  4. otheoscope
  5. otheoscopes
  6. other
  7. other backward class
  8. other backward classes
  9. other days, other ways
  10. other end
  11. other end of the ball

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: other (page history and authors); Other (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-other.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-other.wav.

Cite this entry: “other.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/other. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.