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

See Examples For:

above all

The promise of this is, above all, productivity.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026

"Do not lose heart. And above all, do not feel guilty," she said, Reuters reported.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

“Thank you for praising me,” Mr. Brookhiser writes in summarizing Lafayette’s speeches, “but thank you above all for causing the world to esteem America.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

But it was above all through her blog, Running Commentary, followed by some 400,000 readers on an island with half a million inhabitants, that she became known far beyond Malta.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

I put my hands down by my sides, see if I can get them light, see if I can remember how it feels to be above all this.

From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon