From Latin illās, accusative feminine plural of ille.

elles f pl

1. they (female)

Inherited from Latin illās, accusative feminine plural of ille.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈe.ʎəs]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈe.ʎes]

elles

1. they (feminine)

elles c

1. indefinite genitive plural of el

Inherited from Old French eles, from Latin illās, accusative feminine plural of ille.

• IPA^(key): /ɛl/, (before a vowel) /ɛl.z‿/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: aile, ailes, elle, hèle, hèles, hèlent, L

elles f pl (third-person plural, singular elle, accusative les, dative leur, emphatic elles, possessive determiner leur)

1. they (female)
2. them (female)

elles f

1. plural of elle

• “elles”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• selle

el- (“away, off”) +‎ les (“to spy, peep, peek”)

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛlːɛʃ]
• Hyphenation: el‧les
• Rhymes: -ɛʃ

elles

1. (transitive) to learn by watching, to acquire by (close and often secret) observation (from someone: -tól/-től)
   • 1862, Imre Madách, The Tragedy of Man,^[1] translation by J.C.W. Horne,^[2] Iain MacLeod,^[3] and George Szirtes,^[4] Scene 1:

     Nehány golyóba összevissza gyúrva, / Most vonzza, űzi és taszítja egymást, / Nehány féregben öntudatra kél, / Míg minden megtelt, míg minden kihűlt, / És megmarad a semleges salak. – / Az ember ezt, ha egykor ellesi, / Vegykonyhájában szintén megteszi.

     That a few spheres this way or that revolve, / That one attracts another or repels, / That in a few worms dawns a consciousness, / Till all be fulfilled and till all grow cold / And only indistinguishable dust remain? / Why, man too, almost, if he should but learn, / Might in his kitchen seethe as good a broth

     Meanwhile this matter, kneaded into globes, / unfolds, attracts, repulses, whirls around, / till in some beast a conscious thought is kindled… / Then all fulfilled and all its heat expended, / indifferent, the neutral dust remains. / One day, man may himself acquire the knack / and plagiarize this crude experiment

     Are now screwed up into these tiny globes / That chase, attract or else repel each other, / Awaking a few worms to consciousness / Till all of space is tilled at last, grows cold, / And only the indifferent slag is left? / If man’s at all observant he’ll concoct / Some hash like this with his poor instruments.

• elles in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• elles in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

elles f

1. inflection of elle:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/vocative/accusative plural

• alles, ells, ills, elle

From Old English elles, from Proto-West Germanic *alljas.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl(ə)s/

elles

1. else

elles

1. else

elles

1. else

• English: else
• Yola: elles

• “elles, adj. (also as noun).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “elles, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “elles, conj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

elles f pl

1. they (female).
2. them (female).

• ellest (dialectal)

From eller (“or”), from Old Norse ella, ellar, from Proto-Germanic *aljaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛlːəs/

elles

1. (conjunctive) else, otherwise

   Det lyt du gjera, elles går dette gale.

   You have to do that, else this will go wrong.

• annars

• “elles” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “elles”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016
• “elles” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

From Proto-West Germanic *alljas

elles

1. else, otherwise, in another manner
   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "The Seven Sleepers"

     ...ac mē tōdæġ swā wundorlīce is ġelumpen þæt ic þurh nān þincg ne mæġ ġecnāwan hwæðer þys sȳ Ephesa byriġ þe elles ǣniġ ōþer;...

     But to-day it has befallen me so wonderfully that I cannot by any means recognise whether this be the city of the Ephesians or else any other.

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “ELLES”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

elles m pl

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of eles.

elles m

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of eles.

• Syllabification: e‧lles

elles gender-neutral pl

1. (gender-neutral, neologism) they; a gender-neutral plural third-person personal pronoun
   • 2019, Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales, Derechos humanos en la Argentina: Informe 2019, Siglo XXI Editores, →ISBN:

     Elles integraron los organismos junto a activistas que si bien no tenían parientes desaparecides se sumaron por trayectorias militantes y profesionales.

     They were part of the organizations along with activists who, although they had no relatives who had disappeared, joined them through militant and professional trajectories.

2. plural of elle

elles f pl

1. plural of elle

From Middle English elles, from Old English elles, from Proto-West Germanic *alljas.

• IPA^(key): /ɛls/

elles

1. else

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 38