Somewhat is an adverb that indicates a change that is moderate in nature. Examples of this would be:
- John was somewhat slower at problem solving than Tom. (John is not as fast as solving problems as Tom is.)
- She was somewhat surprised by his response. (While she was surprised, she was not greatly surprised, only surprised a small amount.)
Sometimes it can be used in a more ironic sense, as a type of 'understatement' in which the opposite may be true:
- He found learning algebra to be somewhat of a challenge.(In actuality, he found algebra to be a tremendous challenge.)