all the way

1. 1.

   to the goal

   “she climbed the mountain all the way”

   Synonymsthe whole way
2. 2.

   completely

   “read the book clear to the end”

   “slept clear through the night”

   “there were open fields clear to the horizon”

   Synonymsclear
3. 3.

   not stopping short of sexual intercourse

   “she went all the way with him”

Questions about all the way

What does all the way mean?

all the way means "to the goal". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for all the way?

Close synonyms include the whole way, clear. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is all the way a common word?

all the way is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.