Meanings
- Including every person; without exception; unanimously.
[W]ould Iran’s players sing their national anthem, which is seen as a gesture in support of the regime? To a man, the answer was a stony-faced no.
2022 November 21, David Hytner, “England open World Cup in style with Bukayo Saka double in 6–2 rout of Iran”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Aug 20232 more examples
There is hardly a man in the world, one would think so ignorant, as not to know that the ordinary quack-doctors, who publish their great abilities in little brown billets, distributed to all who pass by, are to a man impostors and murderers; […]
1712 August 9 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “TUESDAY, July 30, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 444; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 186To a man, Cyrenaica's new landlords insist they are the launchpad for a countrywide liberation, with Tripoli as the capital, not a separatist movement.
2011 February 25, “Building a new Libya”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2023
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From to (“indicating a limit reached”) + a + man (“adult male human; human regardless of gender or sex”), indicating that something reaches the extent of every individual person.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with to a man
All rhymes →Cite this entry
to a man. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20man
“to a man.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20man. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “to a man,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to%20a%20man.
Source: to a man on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.