Wiktionary

altogether

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English altogeder, altogedere, equivalent to al- (“all”) +‎ together. Cognate with Scots awthegither (“altogether”), Middle High German alzegater (“altogether”), Dutch altegaar. Compare also Old English ealġeador, eallġeador (“altogether”), West Frisian allegearre (“altogether”). More at together.

The noun sense (nakedness): was popularized in George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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altogether (not comparable)

  1. Completely, wholly, or without exception.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:completely
    Police did not seem altogether satisfied with my alibi.
    • 1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes:
      Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.
    • 1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24:
      And wordy attacks against slavery drew sneers from observers which were not altogether undeserved. The authors were compared to doctors who offered to a patient nothing more than invectives against the disease which consumed him.
  2. On the whole; with everything considered.
    Synonyms: all in all; see also Thesaurus:mostly
    Altogether, I'm sorry it happened.
    • 2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England 5, Iceland 0: under 21 match report”, in The Telegraph‎[1]:
      A sell-out crowd of 10,000 then observed perfectly a period of silence before the team revealed their black armbands, complete with stitched-in poppies, for the match. After FIFA’s about-turn, it must have been a frantic few days for the England kit manufacturer. The on-field challenge was altogether more straightforward.
  3. With everything included.
    Altogether, your bill comes to $6.99.
  4. (informal) An intensifier: without doubt, clearly.
    It was a great game altogether.
    That took altogether too much time.

Usage notes

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“Altogether” and “all together” do not mean the same thing. The one-word term is used to mean “wholly, completely, in total," whereas the two-word term is used to mean "as a group, in the same place,” etc.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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altogether (plural altogethers)

  1. (colloquial, usually with the) A state of nakedness. (Especially in the phrase in the altogether)
    • 1896, The Quartier Latin‎[2], volume 1, number 1:
      And she objects, too, to the "altogether." Her gowns will never be cut more décolleté than those seen in the boxes of the Metropolitan Opera House of New York city.
    • 1930 August 4, “Prix de Rome”, in Time:
      Hearing that his wife was posing in the altogether for the great Spanish satirist, the Duke of Alba swore that he would paint Goya's picture in Goya's blood.
    • 2004 November 25, David Carr, “When a TV Talking Head Becomes a Talking Body”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 September 2008:
      Last week, a Cleveland news anchor, Sharon Reed, was caught on camera stripping nude and joining a gaggle of other people in the altogether.
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