almost
al·most/ˈɔːl.məʊst/adverb, noun
almost is spelled A-L-M-O-S-T, 2 syllables: al·most. The wrong spelling people search most is allmost: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 54 of all searches for the word. Almost is an adverb meaning “Very close to, but not quite”.
How many letters and syllables are in almost?
| Letters | 6: A-L-M-O-S-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: al·most |
| In writing | 245 times per million words; the 402nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, allmost, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell almost?
Almost is spelled A-L-M-O-S-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 36 of the searches for almost in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is almost?
Almost appears 245 times per million words in written English, the 402nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce almost?
- UK /ˈɔːl.məʊst/
- UK /ɔːlˈməʊst/
- /ˈɔː(l)məs/
Almost has 2 syllables, split al·most in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-almost.wav, En-us-inlandnorth-almost.ogg, En-us-almost.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with almost
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: most.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of almost
- aulmos
- almosts plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does almost mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Very close to, but not quite.
Almost all people went there.
- 2
Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).
almost all
- 3
Up to a null set; except for a set of measure 0.
almost everywhere
noun
- 1
informalSomething or someone that doesn't quite make it.
In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate almost?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of almost: most.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Almost in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense very close to:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | presque, quasiment |
| German | fast, beinahe, so gut wie |
| Portuguese | quase |
| Spanish | casi, por poco |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does almost come from?
From Middle English almost, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + most.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).