almost

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During the next week Morel's temper was almost unbearable—D. H. Lawrence, 1913.

Almost has a special role in diluting or 'downgrading' adjectives and adverbs that express an extreme, as if the user wants to keep the notion at arm's length or to allow some means of defence against a challenge; in this use the role of almost is closer to that of 'somewhat' than to its own normal meaning 'nearly'. A correspondent to The Times in 2003 noted a use that was positively counter-intuitive: In response to Jack Straw's apparent condemnation of the foundation hospitals plan there was 'an almost audible gasp'. How did he know? He knew because the gasp was almost inaudible or barely audible; almost and barely (or alternatives such as hardly or scarcely) have subtly complementary roles in avoiding uses that tip unwittingly into the absurd.

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adverb

Near to in quantity or amount: about, approximately, nearly, roughly. Idioms: on the order of. See near/far/distance.

IN BRIEF: Very close to; nearly.

Swinging on delicate hinges the Autumn Leaf Almost off the stem. — Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), US author who influenced the “beat” generation.

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sign description: Both open flat hands with palms up. One hand brushes against the fingertips of the other hand in an upward motion.

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For a list of words related to almost, see:

• Comparisons

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See words rhyming with "almost."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Almost.

Common misspelling(s) of almost

• almsot

Dansk (Danish)
adv. - næsten, omtrent

Nederlands (Dutch)
bijna

Français (French)
adv. - presque, à peu près

Deutsch (German)
adv. - beinahe, fast

Ελληνική (Greek)
adv. - σχεδόν, περίπου, παραλίγο να

Italiano (Italian)
quasi

Português (Portuguese)
adv. - quase, perto de, por pouco, aproximadamente

Русский (Russian)
почти

Español (Spanish)
adv. - casi, por poco

Svenska (Swedish)
adv. - nästan, så gott som

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
差不多, 几乎

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adv. - 差不多, 幾乎

한국어 (Korean)
adv. - 거의, 대부분

日本語 (Japanese)
adv. - ほとんど, もう少しで

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(ظرف) تقريبا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adv. - ‮כמעט‬

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