altogether
/ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.07 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
adv
On the whole; with everything considered.
adv
With everything included.
Example Sentences
- "Police did not seem altogether satisfied with my alibi."
- "Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me."
- "One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable."
- "And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him."
- "Altogether, I'm sorry it happened."
- "A sell-out crowd of 10,000 then observed perfectly a period of silence before the team revealed their black armbands, complete with stitched-in poppies, for the match. After FIFA’s about-turn, it must have been a frantic few days for the England kit manufacturer. The on-field challenge was altogether more straightforward."
Etymology
From Middle English altogeder, altogedere, equivalent to al- (“all”) + together. Cognate with Scots awthegither (“altogether”), Middle High German alzegater (“altogether”), Dutch altegaar. Compare also Old English ealġeador, eallġeador (“altogether”), West Frisian allegearre (“altogether”). More at together. The noun sense (nakedness): was popularized in George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: altogeder
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/
- British English: /ɔːl.tʊˈɡɛð.ə(ɹ)/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Synonyms
absolutely
all-out
tout à fait
all the way
stone-cold
blind
altogether
stark
cold
at large
at length
cap-a-pie