Meanings
- not comparableAlmost, nearly.
The household cock had given his first summons, and the night was well nigh spent.
1816, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in The Antiquary. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 705 more examples
The ſame ſo ſore annoyed has the Knight, / That welnigh choked with the deadly ſtinke, / His forces faile, ne can no lenger fight.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 22, page 9[…] Sindbad the Seaman continued:—So when I escaped drowning and reached the island which afforded me fruit to eat and water to drink, I returned thanks to the Most High and glorified Him; after which I sat till nightfall, hearing no voice and seeing none inhabitant. Then I lay down, well-nigh dead for travail and trouble and terror, and slept without surcease till morning, […]
1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “[Sindbad the Seaman and Sindbad the Landsman] The Fifth Voyage of Sindbad the Seaman. [Night 560.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume VI, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 59This is what makes off-hand testimony about the subjective identity of different sensations well-nigh worthless as a proof of the fact.
1890, William James, “The Stream of Thought”, in The Principles of Psychology […] (American Science Series—Advanced Course), volume I, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 231Five years ago the officers determined to build a new mess. There was only one objection to the fulfilment of this wish: the regimental coffers were wellnigh empty.
1910, Erwin Rosen [pseudonym; Erwin Carlé], “A Hundred Thousand Heroes—A Hundred Thousand Victims”, in In the Foreign Legion, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC, page 137From the third quarter of the 18th century, there has been a steady accession of English words into Bengali, and through an intimate knowledge of the English language and English culture among the educated classes—and 'educated' is now almost synonymous with 'educated in English'—an unending stream of English words is now being admitted into Bengali; and the process was never more active than at the present moment: so that it is well-nigh impossible now to estimate the English element in Bengali, alike in its extent and in its phonology.
1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, “Phonology of the Foreign Element: English”, in The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language […], part I (Introduction, Phonology), Calcutta: Calcutta University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 381, page 633Synonyms: fornigh, just about, virtually, well-near, all but, almost, as good as, as near as makes no difference
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbAlmost, nearly.
More synonyms by meaning
adverb(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂neḱ-“to attain, reach”
- Proto-Indo-European*welh₁-“to choose; to want”
- Old Englishwel nēah
- Middle Englishwel-neigh“physically close to; near in time to; almost, nearly; closely”
- Englishwell-nigh
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”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian почти
- почти (počti)almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Catalan gairebé, quasi
- gairebéalmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
- quasialmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Chinese Mandarin 几乎
- 几乎 (jīhū)almost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Czech takřka
- takřkaalmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Danish næsten
- næstenalmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Esperanto preskaŭ
- preskaŭalmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
French quasiment, presque
- quasimentalmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
- presquealmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
German beinahe, nahezu
- beinahealmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
- nahezualmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Polish prawie
- prawiealmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Spanish casi
- casialmost, nearly — see also almost, nearly
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with well-nigh
All rhymes →Cite this entry
well-nigh. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-nigh
“well-nigh.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-nigh. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “well-nigh,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/well-nigh.
Source: well-nigh on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.