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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

all

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

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    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 who all, where all etc. also has equivalents in German (see alles).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishall
      • inheritedOld Englisheall
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*all “all”
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*allaz “all; entire, whole”
          • derivedProto-Germanic*allaz “all; entire, whole”
        • derivedProto-West Germanic*all “all”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*h₂el- “grown, tall, big”

    Related: Scots a, Yola aal, North Frisian aal, Saterland Frisian al, West Frisian alle, Dutch al, de,lb all, Vilamovian oły, Yiddish אַלע, Danish al, fo,is allur, nb,sv all, Norwegian Nynorsk aillj, Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌻𐍃, br,cy holl, Cornish oll, Irish alig, Manx ooilley, Scottish Gaelic uile, Lithuanian aliái, Armenian ողջ

    Words built on it: all to, all-out, all-time, all-new, know-it-all, all set, all told, although, alone, eat-all-you-can

    Meanings

    det
    1. Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).
    2. Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
    3. Only; alone; nothing but.
    4. Any.
    pron
    1. Everything.
    2. Everyone.
    3. The only thing(s).
    4. Used after who, what, where, how and similar words, either without changing their meaning, or indicating that one expects that they cover more than one element, e.g. that "Who all attended?" is more than one person. (Some dialects only allow this to follow some words and not others.)
    adv
    1. Wholly; entirely; completely; totally.
    2. Apiece; each.
    3. So much; used with "the" and a comparative.
    4. Even; just.
    5. A quotative particle, compare like.
    noun
    1. Everything that one is capable of.
    2. The totality of one's possessions.
    3. Everything in general; all that matters.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: all