Altogether Meaning
/ɔːl.tʊˈɡɛð.ə(ɹ)/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
advCompletely, wholly, or without exception.
advOn the whole; with everything considered.
Sentence Examples
Only by prohibiting nuclear weapons altogether can we stop the arms race.
Altogether, things are going well.
The train went slower and slower until it stopped altogether.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The team completed the work ____ and then celebrated their success.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The situation was ____ different from what we had first expected.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me."
— 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
"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."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"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."
— 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:
"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."
— 2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England 5, Iceland 0: under 21 match report”, in The Telegraph:
"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."
— 1896, The Quartier Latin, volume 1, number 1:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The team completed the work ____ and then celebrated their success.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The situation was ____ different from what we had first expected.