mother of all

phrase

Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).

“, etc.”

Similar
fathergranddaddygrandmammyBig One
OriginArabic أُمّ →
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Meanings

phrase
  1. colloquialidiomaticUsed before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).

    , etc.

    4 more examples

    Near-synonym: Big One

    Driving to a dinner engagement, a Parisian woman gets stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, offers a ride to a handsome pedestrian, and enters a fleeting affair that catches both of them by surprise.

    2003 December 26, “2003 Movie Guide”, in Christian Science Monitor

    Five mail-order ice creams. Four pregnant women. Welcome to the mother of all taste tests.

    2006, Jean Chatzky, “Get the Scoop”, in Money, vol. 35.8

    “[Donald Trump's tariff proposal] is a prescription for the mother of all stagflations,” Larry Summers, Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, told Bloomberg TV back in June.

    2024 October 30, Laurent Belsie, “Surprisingly, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care who gets elected. So far, at least.”, in The Christian Science Monitor

    Synonyms: father, granddaddy, grandmammy, Big One

Synonyms & antonyms

phraseUsed before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).

Similar
fathergranddaddygrandmammyBig One
Also see
big one

Origin

  1. Arabicأُمّ“mother (of)”
  2. Englishmother of all

Calque of Arabic أُمّ (ʔumm, “mother (of)”). Popularized and given its current sense by Saddam Hussein's claim that the impending Gulf War would be the أُمّ المَعَارِك (ʔumm al-maʕārik, “mother of (all) battles”), though mother had long been used in somewhat similar senses in English, and other familial terms are used with the same meaning, like granddaddy (of all traffic jams) and father (of all battles).

More words from Arabic

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

mother of all. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mother%20of%20all

MLA

“mother of all.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mother%20of%20all. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mother of all,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mother%20of%20all.

Source: mother of all on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.