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What is the difference between almost and all?

almost | all | Related terms |

All is a related term of almost.



As adverbs the difference between almost and all

is that almost is very close to, but not quite while all is intensifier.

As nouns the difference between almost and all

is that almost is something or someone that doesn't quite make it while all is everything possible.

As a determiner all is

every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).

As a conjunction all is

although.

As an initialism ALL is

initialism of lang=en.

almost

English

Alternative forms

* (Jamaican English)

Adverb

(-)
  • Very close to, but not quite.
  • Almost all people went there. - Not all but very close to it.
    We almost missed the train. - Not missed but very close to it.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.}}
  • * , chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=9 citation , passage=Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
  • , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}

    Synonyms

    * nearly, nigh, well-nigh, near, close to, next to, practically, virtually

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) Something or someone that doesn't quite make it.
  • In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts .

    Statistics

    *

    all

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (degree) (intensifier).
  • You’ve got it all wrong.
    She was all , “Whatever.”
  • Apiece; each.
  • The score was 30 all when the rain delay started.
  • * 1878 , Gerard Manley Hopkins,
  • His locks like all a ravel-rope’s-end,
    With hempen strands in spray
  • (degree) So much.
  • Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.
  • (dialect, Pennsylvania) All gone; dead.
  • The butter is all .
  • (obsolete, poetic) even; just
  • * Spenser
  • All as his straying flock he fed.
  • * Gay
  • A damsel lay deploring / All on a rock reclined.

    Synonyms

    * completely

    Determiner

    (en 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).
  • :
  • *
  • *: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.
  • *, chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path
  • Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
  • : (= through the whole of the day and the whole of the night.)
  • : (= from the beginning of the year until now.)
  • Everyone.
  • :
  • Everything.
  • :
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3 , passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}
  • (lb) Any.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:without all remedy
  • Only; alone; nothing but.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
  • Noun

  • (with a possessive pronoun) Everything possible.
  • She gave her all , and collapsed at the finish line.
  • (countable) The totality of one's possessions.
  • * 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, pp. 37-8:
  • 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.

    Derived terms

    * a bit of all right * after all * all about * all along * all-American * all and sundry * all-around * all around * all at once * All Blacks * all but * all clear * all-comers * all-day * all-embracing * all-encompassing * all fingers and thumbs * all-fire * All Fools' Day * all for * All Hallows * All Hallows' Day * all hands on deck * allheal * all-important * all in * all-in * all in all * all-in wrestling * all-inclusive * all-knowing * all-night * all-nighter * all of a sudden * all one * all one's life's worth * all or nothing * all-out * all over * all-over * all-overish * all over the place * all over with * all-party * all-powerful * all-purpose * all right * all-round * all-rounder * All Saints' Day * allseed * all-seeing * * allsorts * All Souls' Day * allspice * all square * all-star * all systems go * all that * all the best * all the more * all the same * all the way * all-time * all together * all told * all-too-familiar * all-up * all-up service * all up with * all very well * all-weather * and all * and all that * at all * be all ears * be-all and end-all * best of all * bugger all * catchall * coveralls * cure-all * for all * for good and all * fuck all * give one's all * go all the way * in all * know-it-all * most of all * naff all * not all there * not at all * on all fours * once and for all * overalls * sod all * when all is said and done

    See also

    * any * each * every * everyone * everything * none * some *

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • (obsolete) although
  • * (rfdate) Spenser
  • All they were wondrous loth.