all
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: enpr: ôl
ipa: /ɔːl/
ipa: [oːɫ]
ipa: /u(ɫ)/
ipa: /aːl/
note: without the cot–caught merger
ipa: /ɔl/
note: without the cot–caught merger
ipa: [ɔɫ]
note: of Canada
ipa: /ɑl/
note: of Canada
ipa: [ɑɫ]
note: of the US
ipa: /ɒl/
note: of the US
ipa: [ɒɫ]
ipa: /oːl/
ipa: [oːɫ]
homophone: awl
homophone: I'll (some dialects)
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: al
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 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).
Senses: examples: text: All contestants must register for the footrace: we've arranged numbers for them all.
text: All flesh is originally grass.
text: All (the) three of my nephews adore classical music.
text: 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.
ref: 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298:
text: 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.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
text: Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Now, Nielsen is sending all hotel employees through EI training to help them become more open and confident, understand their own limitations and fears, and to boost their self-worth and comfort in dealing with other people.
ref: 2011 November 9, Susanne Gargiulo, “Emotional intelligence in the workplace”, in CNN:
text: On the one hand, we had a scenario where, effectively, the American admiral just went "You know what, all the destroyers attack", at which point they mowed through the Japanese destroyers like a Grim Reaper through a harvest of very, very dead gorn, especially with the Brooklyns in support.
ref: 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 25:58 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!, archived from the original on 04 Jul 2022:
glosses: Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).
examples: text: The store is open all day and all night.
text: I’ve been working on this all year.
glosses: Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
examples: text: He's all talk; he never puts his ideas into practice.
text: I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: Only; alone; nothing but.
examples: text: without all remedy
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
glosses: Any.