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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

almost.

Very close to, but not quite.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/ˈɔːl.məʊst/UK/ɔːlˈməʊst/UK/ˈɔː(l)məs//ˈɔl.moʊst/US

  1. Very close to, but not quite.

    not-comparable
    Almost all people went there.
    We almost missed the train.

  2. Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).

    not-comparable
    almost all
    almost no

  3. Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined). Up to a null set; except for a set of measure 0.

    not-comparable
    almost everywhere
    almost nowhere
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-Germanic *ala- Proto-West Germanic *ala- Old English æl- Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der. Proto-Germanic *maiz Proto-Germanic *maistaz Proto-Germanic *maist Proto-West Germanic *maist Old English mǣst Old English eallmǣst Middle English almost English almost From Middle English almost, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + most.

noun/ˈɔːl.məʊst/UK/ɔːlˈməʊst/UK/ˈɔː(l)məs//ˈɔl.moʊst/US

  1. Something or someone that doesn't quite make it.

    informal
    In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-Germanic *ala- Proto-West Germanic *ala- Old English æl- Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der. Proto-Germanic *maiz Proto-Germanic *maistaz Proto-Germanic *maist Proto-West Germanic *maist Old English mǣst Old English eallmǣst Middle English almost English almost From Middle English almost, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + most.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.