well-nigh

1. 1.

   (of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but

   “the job is (just) about done”

   “the baby was almost asleep when the alarm sounded”

   “we're almost finished”

   “the car all but ran her down”

   “he nearly fainted”

   “talked for nigh onto 2 hours”

   “the recording is well-nigh perfect”

   “virtually all the parties signed the contract”

   “I was near exhausted by the run”

   “most everyone agrees”

   Synonymsaboutalmostmostnearlynearnighvirtually

Questions about well-nigh

What does well-nigh mean?

well-nigh means "(of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but".

How many syllables are in well-nigh?

well-nigh has 2 syllables: well--nigh. The stress falls on "well-".

What is another word for well-nigh?

Close synonyms include about, almost, most, nearly, near. 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 well-nigh a common word?

well-nigh is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.