all hail
UK/ˌɔːl ˈheɪl//ˌɔl ˈheɪl/
all hail interjection: used as a friendly or respectful salutation to acclaim, greet, or welcome someone: (I wish you) all health or good fortune!
Interjection
(chiefly archaic except humorous)
- Used as a friendly or respectful salutation to acclaim, greet, or welcome someone: (I wish you) all health or good fortune!
- And as they [Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary"] went to tell his diſciples: beholde⸝ Jeſus met them ſayinge: All hayle. And they came and held him by the fete ⁊ worſhipped him.1534 November, Willyam Tindale [i.e., William Tyndale], transl., The Newe Testament […] (Tyndale Bible), Antwerp: […] Marten Emperowr, The Gospell of S. Mathew xxviii:[8–9], folios xliiii, verso –...
- Alhayle O contrey myne by deſtnye due, / And you alhayll (ꝙ [quoth] he,) O Troian gods of promiſe true.1557 December 13 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Virgil, “The Seuenth Booke”, in Thomas Phaer, transl., The Seuen First Bookes of the Eneidos of Virgill, Conuerted in Englishe Meter […], London...
- Synonyms:
- hail
- Chiefly followed by to (someone or something): used as a salutation to indicate that someone or something is respected or welcome.
- All Hail to the Days that merit more Praise, / Than all the rest of the Year; / And welcome the Nights that bringeth delights, / As well to the Poor as the Peer.1719, Thomas d’Urfey, compiler, “A New Song. The Good Fellow.”, in Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume IV, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […], published 19th century...
Noun
all hail (plural all hails)
- A salutation of "all hail" (interjection interjection sense 1); hence, a salutation indicating respect or welcome.
- Brother Kempe, as many alhailes to thy perſon as there be haicocks in Iuly at Pancredge: […][1589?], Cutbert Curry-knaue [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], “To that Most Comicall and Conceited Caualeire Monsieur du Kempe, Iestmonger and Vice-gerent generall to the Ghost of Dicke Tarlton. His Louing...
- Take heede you be not laſt / To tender your All Hayle, in the vvide hall / Of huge Seianus: […]1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, Act V, signature L3, verso
all hail meaning in Malay
all hail in Malay
- used as a friendly or respectful salutation to acclaim, greet, or welcome someone
- dirgahayu
Examples of all hail in a sentence
- […] Iudas kiſt his maſter [Jesus], / And cried all haile, vvhen as he meant all harme.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories...
- All Hail Illuſtrious Daughter of a King, / Shining vvithout, and Glorious all vvithin, […]1689, A[phra] Behn, A Congratulatory Poem to Her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary, upon Her Arrival in England, London: […] R. E. for R. Bentley...
- All-Wise!— / Who out of darkness on the deep didst make / Light on the waters with a word—all hail! / Jehovah, with returning light, all hail!1821, Lord Byron, “Cain, a Mystery”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […]...
Synonyms of all hail
Forms of all hail
| plural | all hails |
|---|
Origin of all hail
The interjection is derived from Middle English al-heil, al heyl (“used as a salutation when meeting someone: your health!, hello!”), from al (“denoting totality”) + heil, heyl (“health, welfare; good fortune”, noun): * Al is derived from Old English eall, from Proto-West Germanic *all (“all”), from Proto-Germanic *allaz (“all; entire, whole”); further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“beyond; other”). * Heil is from Old Norse heill (“hale, healthy; whole”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“hale, healthy; entire, whole”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy; whole”)). The noun is derived from the interjection.
Words formed from all hail
Words that rhyme with all hail
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- veil
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- swale
- vail
- wail
- derail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- gale
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about all hail
- What does all hail mean?
- All hail means used as a friendly or respectful salutation to acclaim, greet, or welcome someone: (I wish you) all health or good fortune!
- What is all hail in Malay?
- All hail in Malay is dirgahayu. See All hail meaning in Malay.
- How do you use all hail in a sentence?
- […] Iudas kiſt his maſter [Jesus], / And cried all haile, vvhen as he meant all harme.
- What part of speech is all hail?
- All hail can be an interjection or a noun.
- How do you pronounce all hail?
- All hail is pronounced /ˌɔːl ˈheɪl/ (UK).
Words near all hail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: all hail (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-all hail.wav.
Cite this entry: “all hail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/all_hail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.