altogether

1. not comparableCompletely, wholly, or without exception.

   Police did not seem altogether satisfied with my alibi.

   4 more examples

   Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me.

   1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   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.

   1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 24

   In his bestseller, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Doug Richmond wackily offers a series of pointers on how to commit pseudocide, including how to evade police detection, arrange for a new driving licence, get a job and how to make it appear that you left the country before disappearing altogether.

   2000 June 18, Jason Cowley, “Where are they now?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2022

   Synonyms: absolutely, all-out, tout à fait, all the way, stone-cold, blind, stark, cold

2. not comparableOn the whole; with everything considered.

   Altogether, I'm sorry it happened.

   1 more example

   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.

   2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England 5, Iceland 0: under 21 match report”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 20 Dec 2011

   Synonyms: all in all, all in all, all things considered, broadly, as a rule, basically, by and large, chiefly

3. not comparableWith everything included.

   Altogether, your bill comes to $6.99.

   Synonyms: all told

4. informalnot comparableAn intensifier: without doubt, clearly.

   It was a great game altogether.

   1 more example

   That took altogether too much time.

5. archaicnot comparableArchaic form of all together.

   There were about forty lines; and such lines! of all sorts and sizes, like a paper of mixed pins, […] long and short, corkings and minikins, jumbled altogether!

   1842, The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register (page 383)

plural altogethers

1. colloquialdatedA state of nakedness.

   Last week, a Cleveland news anchor, Sharon Reed, was caught on camera stripping nude and joining a gaggle of other people in the altogether.

   2004 November 25, David Carr, “When a TV Talking Head Becomes a Talking Body”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Sep 2008

   2 more examples

   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.

   1896, The Quartier Latin, volume 1, number 1

   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.

   1930 August 4, “Prix de Rome”, in Time