not at all
331
1.0
- idiom
:
en absoluto
- I am not at all interested in that movie.
- not at all clear
- not at all important
- does not at all speak
And that's I think not at all genre dependent.
- And that's I think not at all genre dependent.
- No, not at all, not at all.
- So I was not at all interested in ballet.
- So they focused all on the looks and not at all on what's going on underneath.
- Judgeship as an aspiration for a girl is not at all outlandish.
- The Iranians are capable of that, which is not at all sophisticated, but it was massive.
- In Descartes case, that's not at all what happens.
- Hilarious now, but not at all fun in the moment.
- Money is more powerful than most people think, it's just not at all what they've been told.
Examples
-
Of course, that's not at all what he's saying.
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Once again, though, it is not at all obvious how that is to be done.
Academic text (2017) -
This, however, is not at all the same thing.
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I thought that was not at all a good match.
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11. Almost 12% felt it was not at all or only slightly important to exercise.
Academic text (1996) -
The problems before us are complex, and the solutions are not at all obvious.
Academic text (1992) -
So I was not at all interested in ballet.
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Young Turkish people are not at all happy with the way things are going.
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Meanwhile, it's not at all clear that it's going to stop Omicron.
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Not surprisingly, the growth of FDI in South Korea was not at all impressive.
Academic text (1992)
Synonyms
65
4.2
To say that something is not true or not possible at all
46
4.4
Not at all, not even a little
19
3.8
Shows no effect or feeling, not even a little
3
5.6
It is not true or possible in any way
Not true or possible in any way
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly built from negation 'not' plus totality 'all' (with 'at' serving as a grammatical linker), yielding 'not in any way' or 'not at all', which a learner can infer from the parts. This compositional pattern is common across many languages (e.g. French 'pas du tout', Spanish 'en absoluto'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will almost certainly grasp the meaning.
Etymology
Not at all comes from the simple idea that not plus at all means 'not in any way'. Imagine someone asks if you have any sugar and you answer 'not at all'—you mean not even a little. That's why we use it to strongly deny something or say there is nothing.