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
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.
Completely eliminating sycophancy is hard, said Myra Cheng, lead author of the Stanford study and a Stanford Ph.D. candidate in computer science.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 27, 2026
Mr Hetherington asked the GP if she believed the deterioration in Ms Wealleans' health was due to her work situation, to which Dr Swinghurst replied: "Completely."
From BBC • Dec. 11, 2025
Completely shutting down RAS or the enzymes it controls has proven difficult, because these same pathways are essential for normal cell function.
From Science Daily • Oct. 19, 2025
“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable,” Hegseth said in a post online.
From Salon • Sep. 12, 2025
Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay, “Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless — discuss.”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
