Word.ws English Dictionary

all-around

all-around adjective: able to do many or all things well.

Adjective

all-around (not comparable)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) Able to do many or all things well.
    • He is said to be a greater hunter and an all around sport.1909, Horace A. Taylor, Tales of Travel All Around the World, page 149
    • If you want to polish your reputation as an all-around digital photographer, plan on developing at least a modicum of skill with a decent image editing program.2004, David D. Busch, Digital Photography All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, page 15
    Synonyms:
    versatile
  2. (Canada, US, idiomatic) Comprehensive in extent.
    • While Willie Mays's famous catch off the bat of Vic Wertz and Dusty Rhodes's clutch hitting are what fans remember most about the 1954 World Series, Thompson was easily the all-around best in those four games.1994, Larry Moffi, Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959, page 18
    • Children must be given the opportunity to communicate in an all-around way, using language, drawing, music, drama, play, etc. (hence the expression "a child has a hundred languages").2009, Ole Fredrik Lillemyr, Taking Play Seriously, page 67
    Synonyms:
    comprehensive

Adverb

all-around (not comparable)

  1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) Generally, broadly.
    • an all-around better player than me
    • Vacation with pay, annual passes, and all around better working conditions.1911, The Railroad Telegrapher, volume 28, page 1730

Noun

all-around (uncountable)

  1. (Canada, US) A gymnastic event featuring several individual exercises.

Examples of all-around in a sentence

  • But it was as an all-around performer that Gill established his reputation.2005, Frank Zarnowski, All-around Men: Heroes of a Forgotten Sport, page 98:
  • In addition, be sure to reinforce - as persistently as possible - that addressing questionable behavior makes for an all-around better organization.2005, Christopher Bauer, Better Ethics Now: How to Avoid the Ethics Disaster You Never Saw Coming:

Synonyms of all-around

Origin of all-around

From all- + around, compare all-round.

Questions about all-around

What does all-around mean?
All-around means able to do many or all things well.
How do you use all-around in a sentence?
But it was as an all-around performer that Gill established his reputation.
What part of speech is all-around?
All-around can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.

Words near all-around in the dictionary

  1. all-a-mort
  2. All-America
  3. All-American
  4. all-Americanness
  5. All-Americans
  6. all-around
  7. all-arounder
  8. all-arounders
  9. all-as-one
  10. all-becrushing
  11. all-boys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: all-around (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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