Link Centre Dictionary

all

UK/ɔːl/ US/oːɫ/ very common
adjective (2) adverb (1)

adjective

1.

quantifier; used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class

  • “we sat up all night”
  • “ate all the food”
  • “all men are mortal”
  • “all parties are welcome”
Antonyms
Similar
2.

completely given to or absorbed by

  • “became all attention”
Similar

adverb

1.

to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly')

  • “he was wholly convinced”
  • “entirely satisfied with the meal”
  • “it was completely different from what we expected”
  • “was completely at fault”
  • “a totally new situation”
  • “the directions were all wrong”
  • “it was not altogether her fault”
  • “an altogether new approach”
  • “a whole new idea”
Synonyms
Antonyms

Origin

From Middle English all, from Old English eall, from Proto-West Germanic *all, from Proto-Germanic *allaz, of uncertain origin but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“all”). Cognates Cognate with Scots a, a', aa, aal, aw (“all”), Yola aal, al, all, aul (“all”), North Frisian aal, aale, ale, ali, åle (“all”), Saterland Frisian al (“already”), aal (“all”), West Frisian alle (“all”), Dutch al (“all”), German and Luxembourgish all (“all”), Vilamovian oły, ołły (“all”), Yiddish אַלע (ale, “all”), Danish al (“all”), Faroese and Icelandic allur (“all”), Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish all (“all”), Norwegian Nynorsk aillj, all (“all”), Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌻𐍃 (alls, “all”); also Breton and Welsh holl (“all”), Cornish oll (“all”), Irish alig, eile, uile, uileag, uilig (“all”), Manx ooilley (“all”), Scottish Gaelic uile, uileag (“all”), Lithuanian aliái (“every”), Armenian ողջ (oġǰ, “entire, whole”). The dialectal sense “all gone” is a calque of German alle. The use in who all, where all etc. also has equivalents in German (see alles).

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.