after all
Idioms-
Despite everything, nevertheless, as in The plane took off half an hour late but landed on time after all .
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After everything else has been considered, ultimately, as in Mary has final approval of the guest list; after all, it's her wedding . The two usages are pronounced differently, the first giving stress to the word after and the second to the word all . Both date from the early 1700s. Also see when all is said and done .
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.
AI agents, after all, can only do a lot of things on behalf of users if said users give them access to their data—their emails, calendars, e-commerce sites and bank accounts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
These distinctive structures form under the intense pressures produced during an impact and provided compelling evidence that the feature was not volcanic after all.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Ivey had designed Med-Bays to look like real-world MRIs, after all.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
Former England winger Andros Townsend joked that playing Stoke away "wasn't so bad after all" following a bizarre incident in Thailand in which he was run over by a pitch roller.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Natalie and Shannon might have been from very different parts of the city, but they were from the same planet after all.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
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.
