all
UK /ɔːl/ · US /ɔl/ determiner, pronoun, adverb, noun, conjunction, adjective
- determiner Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable). “All contestants must register for the footrace: we've arranged numbers for them all.”
- determiner Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer). “The store is open all day and all night.”
- determiner Only; alone; nothing but. “He's all talk; he never puts his ideas into practice.”
- determiner (obsolete) Any.
- pronoun Everything. “Some gave all they had.”
- pronoun Everyone. “A good time was had by all (of you/us/them).”
- pronoun The only thing(s). “All that was left was a small pile of ash.”
- pronoun (chiefly Southern US, South Midland US, Midland US, Scotland, Northern Ireland, India) Used after who, what, where, how and similar words, either without changing their meaning, or indicating that one expects that they cover more than one element, e.g. that "Who all attended?" is more than one person. (Some dialects only allow this to follow some words and not others.)
- adverb (intensifier, sometimes childish) Wholly; entirely; completely; totally. “She was sitting all alone. It suddenly went all quiet. I'm all done, Mommy! I did it all by myself.”
- adverb Apiece; each. “The score was 30 all when the rain delay started.”
- adverb (degree) So much; used with "the" and a comparative. “Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.”
- adverb (obsolete, poetic) Even; just.
- adverb A quotative particle, compare like. “She was all, “Whatever.””
- noun (with a possessive pronoun) Everything that one is capable of. “She gave her all, and collapsed at the finish line.”
- noun (countable) The totality of one's possessions. “she therefore ordered Jenny to pack up her alls and begone, for that she was determined she should not sleep that night within her walls. […] I packed up my little all as well as I could, and went off.”
- noun Everything in general; all that matters. “I will die fighting for my people, because my people are all.”
- conjunction (obsolete) Although.
- adjective (Pennsylvania, dialect) All gone; dead. “The butter is all.”
Synonyms
all in all wholly entirely completely totally altogether whole
Antonyms
Etymology
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”).
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).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective The whole quantity, extent, duration, amount, quality, or degree of; the whole; the whole number of; any whatever; every; as, all the wheat; all the land; all the year; all the strength; all happiness; all abundance; loss of all power; beyond all doubt; you will see us all (or all of us).
- adjective Any. [Obs.] "Without all remedy." Shak.
- adverb Wholly; completely; altogether; entirely; quite; very; as, all bedewed; my friend is all for amusement. "And cheeks all pale." Byron.
- adverb Even; just. (Often a mere intensive adjunct.) [Obs. or Poet.]
Etymology [OE. al, pl. alle, AS. eal, pl. ealle, Northumbrian alle, akin to D. & OHG. al, Ger. all, Icel. allr. Dan. al, Sw. all, Goth. alls; and perh. to Ir. and Gael. uile, W. oll.]
Etymology [Orig. all, adv., wholly: used with though or if, which being dropped before the subjunctive left all as if in the sense although.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “all”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details