completely
Americanadverb
-
to the whole amount or extent; fully.
Although the river never dries up completely, there are times when the water is barely a trickle.
-
thoroughly; totally.
I was so completely disoriented by the chiming of Big Ben as I stood below it that I walked into someone with my ice cream.
Great storytelling and successful social media campaigns are completely interconnected.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of completely
Explanation
Use completely to describe something that is totally and utterly...something. A completely ridiculous idea is absolutely crazy and stupid. Completely is an adverb that comes from the Latin completus, "to fill up." We use it to mean "entirely" or "wholly." So if a building is completely destroyed, no part of it is left standing. Reading a newspaper story or watching a documentary film completely means you finished it from beginning to end. And doing so can completely change your view on an issue.
Vocabulary lists containing completely
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ly
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Novel Study: The Hobbit, Chapters 6–9
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
More: Iran declares Strait of Hormuz ‘completely open.’
From MarketWatch • Apr. 18, 2026
The committee also said Jones "has accepted that her post was 'completely inappropriate and unacceptable' and has apologised for it".
From BBC • Nov. 12, 2025
"The answer isn't 'completely random' or 'completely deterministic and predictable.' And yet, examining short time scales, we can find predictable, repeatable evolutionary patterns."
From Science Daily • May 24, 2024
Irvo Otieno’s last days: How a mental health system ‘completely failed’
From Washington Post • Mar. 31, 2023
His daughter-in-law became, from then till her death, his chief correspondent, and the master of the house was 'completely overshadowed' in the family group.
From The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Volume 1 by Gwynn, Stephen Lucius
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
