all
/ɔl/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 6.52 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars
Meaning
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).
det
Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
det
Only; alone; nothing but.
pron
pron
pron
The only thing(s).
pron
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.)
Indian usage
Example Sentences
- "All contestants must register for the footrace: we've arranged numbers for them all."
- "List all books of which you were the sole or co-author."
- "All flesh is originally grass."
- "All (the) three of my nephews adore classical music."
- "Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ʰTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent."
- "In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings."
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”). 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).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂el-, all, eall, *all, *allaz
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɔl/
- British English: /ɔːl/