all right

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See also: allright

English

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Adjective

all right (not comparable)

  1. Good; in acceptable, if not excellent condition.
    The car is all right. It gets me there, anyway.
  2. In good health, unharmed.
    I had a headache earlier, but now I'm all right.
    • 1903, William Brodie, Carl Jungk, Francis Edward Stewart, The Therapeutic Gazette, page 536:
      The dread of most etherizers is a quiet breather who may stop breathing without his notice, and requires the almost constant presence of his ear at the patient's mouth to be sure he or she is all right.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      ‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’
    • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 16:
      Next I called my dear friend Nellie Connally in Dallas. We had been close to Nellie and John for many years, sharing moments of sorrow and happiness alike. She reported that the surgeon had just finished operating and that John was going to be all right.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:all right.

Usage notes

The comparative form "more all right" is used, but rarely. An example would be where another speaker had used the phrase "all right" and repeating it and extending it enhanced the continuity of the conversation. I didn't feel all right earlier today, so I took a power-nap. Now I feel even more all right than I normally do.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Jamaican Creole: irie
    • → Bajan: irie
    • → English: irie
  • ⇒ Yiddish: אָלרײַטניק (olraytnik)

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adverb

all right (not comparable)

  1. Fairly well.
    That went all right, I suppose.
  2. (informal) Most certainly; for sure.
    You taught them a lesson all right! They won't be back.

Translations

Interjection

all right

  1. Used to affirm, indicate agreement, or consent.
    All right, let's go then.
    • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women:
      Presently there came a loud ring, then a decided voice, asking for 'Mr. Laurie', and a surprised-looking servant came running up to announce a young lady. "All right, show her up, it's Miss Jo," said Laurie, going to the door of his little parlor to meet Jo, who appeared, looking rosy and quite at her ease, with a covered dish in one hand and Beth's three kittens in the other.
  2. Used to indicate support, favor or encouragement.
    All right! They scored!
  3. Used to fill space or pauses.
    All right, so what you suggest we do next?
  4. Used as a general lead-in or beginning.
    All right, let's get started.
  5. Used to express exasperation or frustration, often reduplicated or with already.
    All right, already! Let me finish what I was doing first, and then we can talk.
  6. (UK, informal) Term of greeting, equivalent to how are you or hello.
    All right, mate, how are things with you and the missus?

Usage notes

  • All right can also be used in the literal sense of "everything correct":
    He answered the questions quickly, and he got them all right.
  • The inflection and emphasis may vary depending upon what meaning is intended (compare the two US audio pronunciations).
  • The spelling alright (by analogy with "already", "altogether", etc) is nonstandard but in widespread use (as of 29 May 2012, having 209,000,000 hits on Google in comparison to 320,000,000 for "all right", although some of the hits for "all right" will be in the sense of "all correct" described in the note above).

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Chinese

Wikipedia has an article on:

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Japanese オーライ (ōrai), from English all right.

Pronunciation

Interjection

all right

  1. (Taiwan, rail transport, point and call) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    閉塞，all right／闭塞，all right  ―  bìsài, all right  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Norwegian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from English all right.

Pronunciation

Adjective

all right

  1. all right
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