all of the above

Idioms  

1. Also, none of the above. Each one (not any) of the above-named alternatives. For example, Have you decided to quit and announced your decision, or do you want to find another job first?—None of the above. These phrases originated as answers to a multiple-choice question on a test but are now also used colloquially, often as a form of avoiding a direct answer. They use above in the sense of “preceding,” a usage dating from the second half of the 1700s.

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Example Sentences

EQT Chief Executive Toby Rice says he has an “all of the above” approach to funding energy infrastructure in poor countries—meaning both fossil fuels and renewables.

From The Wall Street Journal

All of the above is what it takes to wring 268 globally compliant horsepower out of a 2.0-liter gas engine.

From The Wall Street Journal

“The Westminster Mall meant a lot of things for a lot of people for many years,” Shopoff Realty President Willliam A. Shopoff said. “it was a gathering place and it was a place where people had their first jobs, or first dates or first kiss — or all of the above. We envision a new kind of gathering place that can have the same kind of meaning for people for the next 50 or 75 years.”

From Los Angeles Times

There’s a shortage of all of the above on earth.

From The Wall Street Journal

In other words, an artist who won all of the above.

From BBC