at most
- idiom
- We can take at most three pieces of luggage on the flight.
- at most one
- at most two
- at most three
But AT squared is at most a cubed OK.
- But AT squared is at most a cubed OK.
- I typically have a a few spoonfuls at most of some homemade yoghurt.
- And you know, I can't do more than a day, a week at most, or less than that.
- We knew Connor for like a few pages at most, and he has.
- I am like once a year, maybe at most.
- There's not, I think, like one or two fights at most for Tommy where someone's really come to win.
- But his policies are are center right at most.
- Oh, small, small, four or five people, I think, you know, at most.
- They measure things in in hours or days at most.
- And if in the end he succeeds, at most he gets the triumph of high achievement.
- That's things that you can introduce in your life today or this week at most, OK?
- Most chemicals have one solid form, or a couple at most, depending on who you ask and how you count.
- So as you raise that floor, then you're looking at one or two kids at most.
Examples
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Six weeks at most.
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Two or three days at most.
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And I would make a video, you know, at most once a week, but usually maybe once a month or twice a month.
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We'll lose half a day at most.
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Therefore, 2 students at most can apply to this university in a year.
Academic text (2013) -
We're talking about 15 or 20 good pop hits, at most.
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Most chemicals have one solid form, or a couple at most, depending on who you ask and how you count.
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I'd suggest two days' drive at most.
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I probably had an hour at most before I'd see the police chief.
Fiction book (1994) -
Ah, three to four years at most, I'm guessing.
Synonyms
No more than the number or amount given
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
at + most
The phrase 'at most' directly combines 'at' (marking a point/limit) with 'most' (the greatest amount), yielding the compositional meaning 'not more than' or an upper bound. This quantifying pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will reliably infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
At most comes from the image of a top mark on a cup or ruler that shows the highest amount. You can fill or count up to that point, the most, but not go past it, so at most means 'not more than'.