Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

at large

Cultural  

  1. A descriptive term for the election of public officials by an entire governmental unit rather than by subdivisions of the unit. For example, a delegate at large does not represent any specific district or locale, but speaks instead for a much wider group of people.

at large Idioms  

  1. Free, unconfined, especially not confined in prison, as in To our distress, the housebreakers were still at large . [1300s]

  2. At length, fully; also, as a whole, in general. For example, The chairman talked at large about the company's plans for the coming year , or, as Shakespeare wrote in Love's Labour's Lost (1:1): “So to the laws at large I write my name” (that is, I uphold the laws in general). This usage is somewhat less common. [1400s]

  3. Elected to represent an entire group of voters rather than those in a particular district or other segment—for example, alderman at large , representing all the wards of a city instead of just one, or delegate at large to a labor union convention . [Mid-1700s]

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.

Private credit markets are on that watchlist, he said, though he sees no signs yet of the kind of contagion that would threaten the system at large.

From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026

The public at large bought into those efforts with little skepticism in the understandable desire to have Latinos star in the American story.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

The cuts come against a backdrop of wider layoffs across the gaming sector, impacting developers at large and small studios alike.

From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026

‘Chuck Norris penetrated the internet as the internet was figuring out how to be something that took over the culture at large.’

From MarketWatch • Mar. 20, 2026

In Hadem at large, in the bars and restaurants, on the street comers and stoops, there could be heard more blunt criticism of Malcolm X than ever before in his career.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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.