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.
We might also consider completely removing the term ultra because it is weirdly emotional and sounds more like a meme than science.
From Slate • Jul. 12, 2026
Two homes were completely destroyed with damage caused to a further two properties.
From BBC • Jul. 12, 2026
‘I’m going to have to completely go back to the drawing board, rethink my life and probably start at the bottom in a new industry.’
From MarketWatch • Jul. 11, 2026
“That sense of community—that community cohesion—is everywhere in the soccer world. But it is completely lacking in the United States.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
We still have two hundred or so miles to go, across part of the ice on Norton Sound, and it is completely over.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
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.
