altogether
Americanadverb
-
wholly; entirely; completely; quite.
altogether fitting.
- Synonyms:
- absolutely, totally, utterly
-
with all or everything included.
The debt amounted altogether to twenty dollars.
-
with everything considered; on the whole.
Altogether, I'm glad it's over.
idioms
adverb
-
with everything included
altogether he owed me sixty pounds
-
completely; utterly; totally
he was altogether mad
-
on the whole
altogether it was a very good party
noun
Commonly Confused
The forms altogether and all together, though often indistinguishable in speech, are distinct in meaning. The adverb altogether means “wholly, entirely, completely”: an altogether confused scene. The phrase all together means “in a group”: The children were all together in the kitchen. The word all can be omitted without seriously affecting the meaning: The children were together in the kitchen.
Etymology
Origin of altogether
First recorded in 1125–75; variant of Middle English altogeder; see all, together
Explanation
If you're altogether certain, you know it for a fact. Since you're altogether sure that your calculations are correct, go ahead with the experiment. Please wear your goggles just in case. Never use “all together” (meaning “all in one place”) when you mean altogether (which can also mean "all things considered"). It was risky to bring us all together again after so many years, but you have to admit that altogether we had a good time. Altogether, it could have been worse. It wasn't altogether bad. I suppose we won't do it again next year.
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.
Before you sell or become a landlord, get two or three estimates for making the stairwell safer or eliminating the problem altogether.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
"Below a certain threshold, services do not simply reach fewer people; they can stop functioning altogether, leaving those most at risk without the protection they need."
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
In the run-up to her nuptials, Clark presented her own “wife school” series that made marriage sound so miserable that a reasonable viewer’s only conclusion was to avoid being a wife altogether.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
“I don’t think that AI simulation training is going to replace altogether that observing and learning by doing,” she adds, but “you can actually pick up patterns possibly faster.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Hibernation would mean missing out on winter altogether and not having the opportunity to partake of all the things he loved about it.
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
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
