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all

adj.
A2 Elementary Oxford US //ˈɔɫ// UK //ˈɔːl// all Archaic Dialect General-service Literary

adj. used to talk about the total number of things or people in a group, or the whole amount of something. It means 'every one' or 'the complete amount'.

adj. A determiner or predeterminer indicating the entire quantity of a group or the full extent of a substance.


SIMPLE

All the lights are on in the house.

CONTEXTUAL

She spent all her money on a new coat for the winter.

COMPLEX

For all his claims of expertise, he was unable to solve the fundamental problem that had stumped generations of scholars before him.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

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 [Term?] (“who all, where all”) etc. also has equivalents in German (see alles).

Usage

Functions as a predeterminer before articles and possessives (all the books) or as a determiner before plural or uncountable nouns (all children, all water). It can also be a pronoun.

Pitfall

All student has a book.All students have a book.When used with a countable noun, 'all' requires the plural form of the noun and a plural verb. Learners often confuse it with 'every', which takes a singular noun and verb.

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