Several

How to spell several

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce several

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does several mean?

1. determinerMore than two but not very many; an indefinite small number.
2. adjectiveSeparate or individual, as distinct from joint; chiefly used in legal contexts of liability.

Several in a sentence

• determiner

  The report took several weeks to complete.

• adjective

  Each partner bore several liability under the contract.

• determiner

  She received several replies to the job advert.

• adjective

  The judgment created joint and several obligations for the defendants.

Where does several come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Anglo-Norman and Old French 'several', meaning 'separate' or 'distinct', which in turn rests on the Latin 'separalis', a form built on 'separ' meaning 'separate' or 'differing'. That root is the same one that gives us 'separate' and 'sever', so the original idea was of things considered individually rather than together. English adopted it in the fifteenth century, at first in the legal sense of 'separate' (as in 'joint and several liability', a phrase lawyers still use today). From the notion of 'separate, individual ones' the word drifted toward simply meaning 'more than two but not very many', which is the everyday sense now. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle vowel: it is written with an 'e' (sev-E-ral), echoing the 'sever' root, even though the sound nearly vanishes in speech.

How the word is built

• sever- (from Latin separ: separate, distinct)
• -al (adjective suffix)