almost
Very close to, but not quite.
Adverb
- Very close to, but not quite.
- Almost all people went there.
- We almost missed the train.
- Nobody, or almost, noticed anything unusual.
Synonyms: environ
- Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).
- almost all
- almost no
-
(measure theory, probability theory) Up to a null set; except for a set of measure 0.
- almost everywhere
- almost nowhere
- almost certain
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós Proto-Germanic *allaz Proto-Germanic *ala- Proto-West Germanic *ala- Old English æl- Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der. Proto-Germanic *maiz Proto-Germanic *maistaz Proto-Germanic *maist Proto-West Germanic *maist Old English mǣst Old English eallmǣst Middle English almost English almost From Middle English almost, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + most.
Forms
Synonyms
nearly nigh well-nigh near close to next to practically virtually not yet not all but almost as good as as near as makes no difference fornigh just about more or less near as damn it nigh on nighwhat not quite pretty much tantamount to
Antonyms
Hypernyms
Related
Derived
almost all almost doesn't count almost everywhere almost fall off one's chair almost fall of one's chair almostness almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades almost prime almost split sequence almost standards mode almost surely
Noun
- Something or someone that doesn't quite make it.
- In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts.