GeezerVison

GeezerVison is showing en.wiktionary.org — almost - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: álmost and Álmost

English

Alternative forms

aulmos (Jamaica)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːl.məʊst/, (emphatic, utterance-final) /ɔːlˈməʊst/
- (colloquial, unaccented) IPA^(key): /ˈɔː(l)məs/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔl.moʊst/, /ˈɑl.moʊst/, /ˈoʊ.moʊst/
- Audio (General American): (file)
- Audio (US, Inland Northern American): (file)
- Audio (US): (file)
(Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈɒɫmoʊst]
(Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈoːlməʉst/, [ˈoːɫməʉst], [ˈoːwməʉst], /əʉməʉst/
Rhymes: -əʊst
Hyphenation: al‧most

Adverb

almost (not comparable)

Very close to, but not quite.
Synonym: (obsolete) environ

Almost all people went there. (not all but very close to it)

We almost missed the train. (not missed but very close to it)

Nobody, or almost, noticed anything unusual.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
  Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter IX, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
  Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.
- 1976 December 25, Robert Chesley, “New York's "Nightingale" Does No Justice to Williams' Play”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 20:
  For some odd reason, Sherin has chosen to direct the play as a comedy — at times almost a farce.
- 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎^[1], volume 188, number 23, archived from the original on 11 October 2026, page 19:
  In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
(mathematics) Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).
almost all

almost no
1. (measure theory, probability theory) Up to a null set; except for a set of measure 0.
  almost everywhere
  
  almost nowhere
  
  almost certain
  
  almost sure

Synonyms

(very close to, but not quite): nearly, nigh, well-nigh, near, close to, next to, practically, virtually, not yet, not

Derived terms

Translations

very close to — see also quasi

Afrikaans: amper (af), byna (af)
Ainu: ナアニ (naani), ナアニフンコ (naanihunko), ナアニポ (naanipo)
Albanian: pothuajse (sq), gati (sq)
Aleut: hizax
Arabic: تَقْرِيبًا (taqrīban), عَلَى وَشْك (ʕalā wašk), كَادَ (kāda) (verb, "to almost do something")
Tunisian Arabic: قرِيب (qrīb)
Aragonese: quasi
Armenian: համարյա (hy) (hamarya), գրեթե (hy) (gretʻe)
Asturian: cuasi (ast), casi (ast)
Azerbaijani: az qala, az qaldı
Basque: ia
Belarusian: ама́ль (amálʹ), няма́ль (njamálʹ)
Bengali: প্রায় (bn) (praẏ)
Breton: hogos (br), hogozik (br)
Bulgarian: почти́ (bg) (počtí)
Burmese: လုနီးပါး (my) (lu.ni:pa:)
Catalan: gairebé (ca), quasi (ca)
Cheyenne: tó'ease-
Chinese:
Mandarin: 幾乎 / 几乎 (zh) (jīhū), 差點 / 差点 (zh) (chàdiǎn), 差一點 / 差一点 (zh) (chāyīdiǎn), 差不多 (zh) (chàbuduō)
Czech: skoro (cs), téměř (cs)
Danish: næsten (da), være lige ved at, nærved
Dutch: bijna (nl), nagenoeg (nl), vrijwel (nl), zo goed als
Esperanto: preskaŭ (eo)
Estonian: peaaegu (et)
Extremaduran: cuasi, abati
Faroese: næstan
Finnish: melkein (fi), lähes (fi), miltei (fi), liki (fi)
French: presque (fr), quasiment (fr)
Frisian:
West Frisian: hast
Galician: case (gl)
Georgian: თითქმის (titkmis), ლამის (lamis)
German: fast (de), beinahe (de), so gut wie (de)
Alemannic German: schier
Greek: σχεδόν (el) (schedón), παραλίγο (el) (paralígo)
Ancient Greek: σχεδόν (skhedón), ὀλίγου δεῖν (olígou deîn), ὀλίγου (olígou)
Greenlandic: -ngajak
Hebrew: כִּמְעַט (he) (kim'át)
Hindi: लगभग (hi) (lagbhag), तक़रीबन (taqrīban), प्राय (hi) (prāy), प्रायः (hi) (prāyaḥ)
Hungarian: majdnem (hu), közel (hu)
Icelandic: næstum því, næstum (is)
Ido: preske (io)
Indonesian: hampir (id), nyaris (id)
Ingrian: melkeen
Irish: beagnach, dóbair
Italian: quasi (it)
Jamaican Creole: aalmos
Japanese: ほとんど (ja) (hotondo), ほぼ (ja) (hobo), 大方 (ja) (おおかた, ōkata)
Kazakh: дерлік (derlik)
Khmer: ជិត (km) (cɨt), ស្ទើរតែ (stǝǝ tae)
Korean: 거의 (ko) (geoui), 뻔하다 (ko) (ppeonhada) (adjective, used after verbs)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: teqrîben (ku), nêzîkî (ku), hema-hema (ku)
Kyrgyz: дээрлик (ky) (deerlik)
Lao: ເກືອບ (lo) (kư̄ap)
Latgalian: kuoni, gondreiž
Latin: paene (la), ferē (la)
Latvian: gandrīz
Lithuanian: beveik (lt)
Macedonian: речиси (rečisi), скоро (skoro), безмалку (bezmalku)
Malagasy: saiky (mg)
Maltese: kważi
Māori: pitoiti, pitopitoiti, tata, kainamu, tōtahi
Mirandese: quaije
Mongolian: бараг (mn) (barag), мөлтөс (mn) (möltös), шахам (mn) (šaxam)
Navajo: kʼasdą́ą́ʼ, kʼadę́ę
Norwegian:
Bokmål: nesten (no), bortimot (no)

Nynorsk: nesten, bortimot
Occitan: gaireben (oc), quasi, quasiben, quasiment
Old English: fulnēah
Old Norse: nær svá, mjǫk
Pashto: تقريباً (ps) (taqríban)
Persian:
Dari: تَقْرِیباً (fa) (taqrīban), قَرِیب (fa) (qarīb)

Iranian Persian: تَقْریباً (fa) (taġriban), قَریب (fa) (ġarib)
Plautdietsch: knaup, afens
Polish: prawie (pl), niemalże (pl), niemal (pl), omal (pl), bez mała, blisko (pl)
Portuguese: quase (pt)
Quechua: yaqa
Romanian: aproape (ro), era să (used with verbs in past tense)
Russian: почти́ (ru) (počtí), почти́ что (ru) (počtí što)
Sanskrit: नोद् (nod)
Sardinian: cante
Scots: awmaist, amaist, maistly, maistlins
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ско̀ро

Latin: skòro (sh)
Sinhalese: බොහෝ දුරට (bohō duraṭa)
Slovak: skoro, takmer (sk)
Slovene: skôraj (sl)
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: skóro
Spanish: casi (es), por poco (es)
Swedish: nästan (sv), närapå (sv)
Tajik: тақрибан (taqriban), қариб (tg) (qarib)
Tày: ái
Telugu: దాదాపు (te) (dādāpu), దరిదాపు (te) (daridāpu)
Thai: เกือบ (th) (gʉ̀ʉap)
Tibetan: ཕལ་ཆེར (phal cher), ཧ་ལམ (ha lam)
Tok Pisin: klosap
Turkish: neredeyse (tr)
Ukrainian: ма́йже (uk) (májže), сливе́ (uk) (slyvé)
Unami: kayahti
Urdu: تَقْرِیباً (taqrīban), لَگ بَھگ (ur) (lag bhag)
Uzbek: deyarli (uz), qariyb (uz), taqriban (uz)
Vietnamese: gần (vi), gần như (vi), hầu như
Welsh: bron (cy)
Yiddish: כּמעט (kimat)

(mathematics)

Armenian: գրեթե (hy) (gretʻe)
Bulgarian: почти́ (bg) (počtí)
Finnish: melkein (fi), lähes (fi), miltei (fi), liki (fi)
German: fast (de)
Polish: prawie (pl), niemal (pl)

(measure theory, probability theory)

Armenian: գրեթե (hy) (gretʻe)
Bulgarian: почти́ (bg) (počtí)
Finnish: melkein (fi), lähes (fi), miltei (fi), liki (fi)
German: fast (de)
Polish: prawie (pl), niemal (pl)

Noun

almost (plural almosts)

(informal) 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.