say it: awl-tuh-GETH-ur
altogether is an adverb and noun meaning "to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly')". It carries 4 recorded senses.
to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly')
“he was wholly convinced”
“entirely satisfied with the meal”
“it was completely different from what we expected”
“was completely at fault”
“a totally new situation”
“the directions were all wrong”
“it was not altogether her fault”
“an altogether new approach”
“a whole new idea”
“she felt right at home”
“he fell right into the trap”
with everything considered (and neglecting details)
“altogether, I'm sorry it happened”
“all in all, it's not so bad”
informal terms for nakedness
“in the raw”
“in the altogether”
“in his birthday suit”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for altogether come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.