Standard Lemma guide

well-nigh

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.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˌwɛlˈnaɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -aɪ

1

adv

Meaning 1

Almost, nearly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fornigh, just about, virtually, well-near, all but, almost, as good as, as near as makes no difference, close to, more or less, near, near as damn it, nearly, next to, nigh, nigh on, nighwhat, not quite, practically, pretty much, tantamount to, well-nigh, -ish, about, approaching, around, by and large, circa, close, essentially, for all practical purposes, give or take, imprecisely, kind of, loosely, nearabout, odd, or so, plus or minus, roundly, roughly, say, some, -some, sort of, thereabout, ±

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the job is (just) about done
  • the baby was almost asleep when the alarm sounded
  • we're almost finished
  • the car all but ran her down
  • he nearly fainted
  • talked for nigh onto 2 hours
  • the recording is well-nigh perfect
  • virtually all the parties signed the contract
  • I was near exhausted by the run
  • most everyone agrees

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: about, almost, most, nearly, near, nigh, virtually

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English wel-neigh (“physically close to; near in time to; almost, nearly; closely”) [and other forms], from Old English wel nēah, wel nēh, from wel (“well”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh1- (“to choose; to want”)) + nēah, nēh (“close, near”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h2neḱ- (“to attain, reach”)). Synchronically a univerbation of well (“completely, fully; to a significant degree”) + nigh (“close by, near”).

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: почти (počti) — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 几乎 (jīhū) — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Czech: takřka — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Danish: næsten — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Esperanto: preskaŭ — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • French: quasiment — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • French: presque — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • German: beinahe — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • German: nahezu — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Occitan: quasi — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Polish: prawie — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Scots: maistlins — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
  • Spanish: casi — almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly