at all
Idioms-
In any way or manner, as in Is she able to sing at all?
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To any extent, as in Was she at all surprised?
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For any reason, as in Why bother at all?
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In the slightest degree, under any circumstances, as in She simply refused to walk at all . This construction often occurs in the negative, as in He was not at all frightened . All four senses of this phrase date from the mid-1300s.
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.
"But maybe I'm a manager that if you give them time, the story always ends the same. At all my previous clubs it ends the same -- with me and a trophy."
From Barron's • Oct. 18, 2025
The government has produced guidelines on the use of AI in recruitment, which warns companies: "At all stages there is a risk of unfair bias or discrimination against applicants."
From BBC • Jan. 28, 2025
At all of the other eight undergraduate campuses, Asian Americans were the leading group admitted.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2024
At all sites combined, 65.8 percent of the pre-hurricane adult sponges were genets compared to 85.1 percent of the post-hurricane juveniles.
From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2024
At all costs they mustn’t know it was broken, then.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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.
