almost
adverbnountop 1 000 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈɔːl.məʊst//
- //ˈɔː(l)məs//
Very close to, but not quite.
adverb
- 1
Very close to, but not quite.
Almost all people went there.
We almost missed the train.
Nobody, or almost, noticed anything unusual.
Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.
- 2
Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).
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.
almost everywhere
almost nowhere
almost certain
almost sure
Etymology
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
- 1
informalSomething or someone that doesn't quite make it.
In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts.
Forms
- plural
- almosts