Phrase guide

all but

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adv

Meaning 1

Very nearly; everything short of. Most often precedes a verb or adjective.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Examples

  • The food is all but finished.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adv

Meaning 2

Everything except. Typically precedes a noun or noun phrase.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Examples

  • All but three of the students skipped school the day of the parade.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Azerbaijani: az qala — very nearly
  • Catalan: quasi — very nearly
  • Catalan: gairebé — very nearly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 幾乎 /几乎 (jīhū) — very nearly
  • Danish: næsten — very nearly
  • Dutch: bijna — very nearly
  • Dutch: welhaast — very nearly
  • Esperanto: preskaŭ — very nearly
  • Finnish: lähes — very nearly
  • Finnish: melkein — very nearly
  • Finnish: käytännössä — very nearly
  • Finnish: miltei — very nearly
  • French: presque — very nearly
  • French: plus ou moins — very nearly
  • German: fast — very nearly
  • Italian: quasi — very nearly
  • Italian: praticamente — very nearly
  • Italian: quasi del tutto — very nearly
  • Italian: all'atto pratico — very nearly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: så godt som — very nearly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: praktisk talt — very nearly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: i det store og det hele — very nearly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nesten — very nearly
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mer eller mindre — very nearly
  • Polish: prawie — very nearly
  • Portuguese: praticamente — very nearly
  • Portuguese: quase — very nearly
  • Russian: почти́ (počtí) — very nearly
  • Slovak: takmer — very nearly
  • Slovak: skoro — very nearly
  • Spanish: casi — very nearly
  • Spanish: casi por — very nearly
  • Spanish: casi por completo — very nearly
  • Spanish: prácticamente — very nearly
  • Swedish: praktiskt taget — very nearly
  • Swedish: nära på — very nearly
  • Swedish: snudd på — very nearly