almost

• aulmos (Jamaican English)

From Middle English, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to all- +‎ most.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɔːl.ˈməʊst/, /ˈɔːl.məʊst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔl.moʊst/, /ˈɑl.moʊst/

• Audio (US-Inland North)

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• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: al‧most
• Rhymes: -əʊst

almost (not comparable)

1. Very close to, but not quite.

   Almost all people went there. - Not all but very close to it.

   We almost missed the train. - Not missed but very close to it.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     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. B. Maxwell, chapter 17, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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 9, in The China Governess‎:

     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.

   • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 23, 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.

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

almost (plural almosts)

1. (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.

• Altoms, smalto, stomal