completely

American

[kuhm-pleet-lee] / kəmˈplit li /

adverb

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

quasi-completely adverb
subcompletely adverb
uncompletely adverb

Etymology

Origin of completely

complete + -ly

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.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

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.

"When you go home, that is supposed to be the place that you feel safe, and I've lost that completely," she explained.

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026

It turns out Raven Johnson’s “revenge tour” wasn’t completely over.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026

He once had the power to break politicians, but now he’s completely out of step with black voters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

Their research shows that a quantum process can seem completely memoryless when viewed one way, yet still retain memory when examined from another angle.

From Science Daily • Apr. 14, 2026

She would continue to wash until they were completely white again while she awaited the return of her two books.

From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023