altogether
(Redirected from alltogether)
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɔːl.tʊˈɡɛð.ə(ɹ)/, /ɔː.tuːˈɡɛð.ə(ɹ)/, /ɔːl.təˈɡɛð.ə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɔl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, /ˈɔl.təˌɡɛð.ɚ/, /ɑl.tuˈɡɛð.ɚ/, /ˈɑl.təˌɡɛð.ɚ/
- Rhymes: -ɛðə(ɹ)
Adverb
[edit]altogether (not comparable)
- Completely, wholly, or without exception.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:completely
- Police did not seem altogether satisfied with my alibi.
- 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
- Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:
- 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.
- On the whole; with everything considered.
- Synonyms: all in all; see also Thesaurus:mostly
- Altogether, I'm sorry it happened.
- 2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England 5, Iceland 0: under 21 match report”, in The Telegraph[1]:
- 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.
- With everything included.
- Altogether, your bill comes to $6.99.
- (informal) An intensifier: without doubt, clearly.
- It was a great game altogether.
- That took altogether too much time.
Usage notes
[edit]“Altogether” and “all together” do not mean the same thing. The one-word term is used to mean “wholly, completely, in total," whereas the two-word term is used to mean "as a group, in the same place,” etc.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]without exception; wholly; completely
|
on the whole; everything considered
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Noun
[edit]altogether (plural altogethers)
- (colloquial, usually with the) A state of nakedness. (Especially in the phrase in the altogether)
- 1896, The Quartier Latin[2], volume 1, number 1:
- And she objects, too, to the "altogether." Her gowns will never be cut more décolleté than those seen in the boxes of the Metropolitan Opera House of New York city.
- 1930 August 4, “Prix de Rome”, in Time:
- Hearing that his wife was posing in the altogether for the great Spanish satirist, the Duke of Alba swore that he would paint Goya's picture in Goya's blood.
- 2004 November 25, David Carr, “When a TV Talking Head Becomes a Talking Body”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 September 2008:
- Last week, a Cleveland news anchor, Sharon Reed, was caught on camera stripping nude and joining a gaggle of other people in the altogether.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms prefixed with al-
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛðə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/ɛðə(ɹ)/4 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English informal terms
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English colloquialisms
- English degree adverbs