"or else" meaning in English

See or else in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Forms: or else
Head templates: {{expression}} [POS TABLE]
  1. You say or else after a command to tell someone that if they do not follow it, something bad will happen.
    Sense id: simple-or_else-en-phrase-WGCsQwqx
  2. You say or else after a hope to show that if it isn't true, then something bad will happen or has happened.
    Sense id: simple-or_else-en-phrase-Rj8aZbgB
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "or else",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Expression"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "expression"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My mom yelled, \"you get inside now, or else.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You say or else after a command to tell someone that if they do not follow it, something bad will happen."
      ],
      "id": "simple-or_else-en-phrase-WGCsQwqx"
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I hope he's arrived by now, or else."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You say or else after a hope to show that if it isn't true, then something bad will happen or has happened."
      ],
      "id": "simple-or_else-en-phrase-Rj8aZbgB"
    }
  ],
  "word": "or else"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "or else",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Expression"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "expression"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My mom yelled, \"you get inside now, or else.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You say or else after a command to tell someone that if they do not follow it, something bad will happen."
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I hope he's arrived by now, or else."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You say or else after a hope to show that if it isn't true, then something bad will happen or has happened."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "or else"
}

Download raw JSONL data for or else meaning in English (0.6kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-07-19 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-07-03 using wiktextract (45c4a21 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.