above all

American  

[uh-buhv awl] / əˈbʌv ˈɔl /

idiom

1. most important of all; before everything else; chiefly.

   Above all, the little girl wanted a piano.

   He said that, above all else, he was a dad of two young children.

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above all More Idioms  

1. More than anything else, as in A winter hike calls for good equipment, but above all it requires careful planning. This phrase first appears in William Langland's Piers Ploughman (1377), in which the narrator exhorts readers to love the Lord God above all. Also see first and last.

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Etymology

Origin of above all

First recorded in 1350–1400

Example Sentences

However, if a poem leads you to a state of understanding, of awareness, and above all, aspiration, then you start to think about a different life, you want to live differently.

From Barron's • May 21, 2026

Xi has drawn one lesson from the Soviet Union’s collapse above all: Moscow’s economy was too narrow—dependent on a handful of industries such as steel, energy and weapons—to sustain a world power.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

Push conflict, drama and personality above all else and eventually no one will ask what it is exactly it is that you do beyond posting.

From Los Angeles Times • May 18, 2026

This is still above all a lovely, soft yarn about crime-solving farm animals, some of them voiced by Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, and the guy who plays Roy Kent on “Ted Lasso.”

From Salon • May 17, 2026

For almost a decade, I’d been privileged to move through it, experiencing its bracing contradictions and bitter conflicts, its pain and persistent idealism, and above all else its resilience.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama