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.
“Frankly, this entire situation has been blown completely out of proportion,” wrote the social X user Rhein Amacher, somewhat bafflingly, given his own singular efforts to blow the situation up.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
Bray said the 13 weekly support groups have already been reduced to five, and without investment the charity will be forced to move groups online or close completely.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
They wanted to determine not only whether the materials could be completely broken down, but also which microorganisms were responsible and what biological mechanisms allowed them to do it.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Southwest, meanwhile, is completely overhauling its Rapid Rewards program given the airline’s dramatic changes over the past 18 months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Dozens of well-respected newspapers ran stories, some entirely fabricated, “the bodies of Sir John Franklin and his men have been found by Dr. Kane’s party, completely frozen, and in a state of perfect preservation.”
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
