Definition of ALL

all

Plural: alls

Adjective

  • 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"

Adjective Satellite

  • completely given to or absorbed by
    • "became all attention"

Adverb

  • to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly')
    • "a totally new situation"
    • "the directions were all wrong"

Det

  • Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).
  • Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
  • Only; alone; nothing but.
  • Any.

Pron

  • Everything.
  • Everyone.
  • The only thing(s).
  • 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.)

Adv

  • Wholly; entirely; completely; totally.
  • Apiece; each.
  • So much; used with "the" and a comparative.
  • Even; just.
  • A quotative particle, compare like.

Noun

  • The whole quantity or extent of something; everything.
  • Everything that one is capable of.
  • The totality of one's possessions.
  • Everything in general; all that matters.

Conj

  • Although.

Adj

  • All gone; dead.

Examples

  • A good time was had by all (of you/us/them).
  • All (the) three of my nephews adore classical music.
  • All contestants must register for the footrace: we've arranged numbers for them all.
  • All flesh is originally grass.
  • All is not well at home lately.
  • All of Jones’s maneuvers to trounce Kennedy.
  • All that was left was a small pile of ash.
  • Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.
  • He risked it all, playing his last tiles on a long, uncertain word.
  • He's all talk; he never puts his ideas into practice.
  • I will die fighting for my people, because my people are all.
  • I've got three children, of whom all are studying medicine.
  • If he leave the company, I'll have to work all the harder.
  • I’ve been working on this all year.
  • She gave her all, and collapsed at the finish line.
  • She knows all and sees all.
  • 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.
  • She was all, “Whatever.”
  • She was sitting all alone. It suddenly went all quiet. I'm all done, Mommy! I did it all by myself.
  • Some gave all they had.
  • The butter is all.
  • The score was 30 all when the rain delay started.
  • The store is open all day and all night.
  • Those who think they know it all are annoying to those of us who do.
  • We all enjoyed the movie.
  • We ate potatoes and ziti .... that's all.

Origin / 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- (“beyond, other”). Cognate with West Frisian al (“all”), Dutch al (“all”), Scots a' (“all”), German all (“all”), Swedish all (“all”), Norwegian all (“all”), Icelandic allur (“all”), Welsh holl (“all”), Irish uile (“all”), Lithuanian aliái (“all, each, every”).
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).

Antonyms

no, partly, some

Scrabble Score: 3

all: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
all: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
all: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 5

all: valid Words With Friends Word