Word.ws English Dictionary

sev'ral

sev'ral is the contraction of several.

Meaning of several

Adjective

several (comparative more several, superlative most several)

  1. (obsolete) Separate, distinct; particular.
    • Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.
      To every Roman citizen he gives,
      to every several man, seventy-five drachmas.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. A number of different; various.
    • […]for several virtues
      Have I lik'd several women; never any
      With so full soul but some defect in her
      Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
      And put it to the foil[…].1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  3. Separable, capable of being treated separately.

See all 9 meanings of several

Forms of sev'ral

comparativemore sev'ral
superlativemost sev'ral

Questions about sev'ral

What is sev'ral the contraction of?
Sev'ral is the contraction of several.

Words near sev'ral in the dictionary

  1. Seussical
  2. Seussification
  3. sev
  4. sev puri
  5. sev'n
  6. sev'ral
  7. seva
  8. sevabertinib
  9. sevai
  10. sevaiyan
  11. Sevan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sev'ral (page history and authors); several (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:

Cite this entry: “sev'ral.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sev%27ral. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.