Word.ws English Dictionary

all the way

all the way adverb: completely, as much as possible; in full; to the end or full extent.

Adverb

all the way (not comparable)

  1. Completely, as much as possible; in full; to the end or full extent.
    • We're with you all the way on this issue.
    • Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16
    Synonyms:
    in every way
  2. (colloquial) With every typical condiment or topping; with every available one.
    • “Two dogs and a burger all the way, hold the onions on the burger; coming right up.”2011, Al Thomas, Quiet Places of the Heart, page 35
    • I wedged my way into the crowd and up to the counter. All I had to do was catch Janice's eye. She'd bring me the usual, two hot dogs all the way, and a steaming pack of artery-clogging fries.2017, Jane Tesh, Baby, Take A Bow
    Synonyms:
    with the works

Examples of all the way in a sentence

  • I'm a dyke (butch, all the way) and would like to correspond with a fem lesbian who is tender, fine, smart, witty and all the way into loving other women.1981 April 4, Robin Jackson, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
  • Our unit advanced all the way to Pyeongyang, the capital of North Korea.2006, David Hyungbok Kim, “Through Devestation”, in Who Will Answer..., Holt International, →OCLC, page 79:

Synonyms of all the way

Words formed from all the way

Questions about all the way

What does all the way mean?
All the way means completely, as much as possible; in full; to the end or full extent.
How do you use all the way in a sentence?
I'm a dyke (butch, all the way) and would like to correspond with a fem lesbian who is tender, fine, smart, witty and all the way into loving other women.
What part of speech is all the way?
All the way is an adverb.

Words near all the way in the dictionary

  1. all the rave
  2. all the same
  3. all the sudden
  4. all the tea in China
  5. all the time
  6. all the way
  7. all the way to Egery and back
  8. all the way to Sunday
  9. all the while
  10. all the world
  11. all the world and his wife

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: all the way (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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