Word.ws English Dictionary

Five Alls

Five Alls proper noun: the name of many pubs.

five alls: the name of many pubs
Image: Roy Parkhouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

the Five Alls

  1. The name of many pubs.

Origin of Five Alls

Traditionally pub names had a pictorial representation, and the inn sign for inns named "Five Alls" showed five representative figures, each in appropriate garb with a motto underneath. This has occurred in a number of variations, but usually included a monarch saying "I rule (for) all" or "I govern all", a bishop or minister saying "I pray for all", a soldier saying "I fight for all", and a farmer saying "I pay for all". (In modern signs, often John Bull pays for all.) The fifth figure was often a lawyer saying "I plead for all", or could be omitted, in which case the inn would be named "Four Alls".

Questions about Five Alls

What does Five Alls mean?
Five Alls means the name of many pubs.
What part of speech is Five Alls?
Five Alls is a proper noun.

Words near Five Alls in the dictionary

  1. Fiumicino
  2. FIUs
  3. FIV
  4. five
  5. five aggregates
  6. Five Alls
  7. five and dime
  8. five and dimes
  9. five and nine
  10. five and ten
  11. five and tens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Five Alls (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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