at all events
1
3.5
- idiom
:
en cualquier caso
- At all events, these intentions were not viewed with unanimous satisfaction throughout the Arab world, since many political forces entertained justifiable doubts concerning their sincerity and prospective benefits.
Examples
-
Do we need a contingency plan for kerosene at all events?
Blog text (20) -
At all events, he wanted to get rid of the gun.
-
But at all events, it was too late now.
Fiction book (1994) -
At all events, that's the story he told us.
Fiction book (1993) -
At all events, I cannot conjure up a vision of the office that does not include all four of my colleagues.
Fiction book (1993) -
At all events, the pattern of the argument is not too hard to see, and its connection with technological change can be unpacked a little.
Academic text (1997) -
At all events, for some Christians at least, Christianity and socialism as practiced today are intrinsically incompatible.
Academic text (1992) -
He augmented this with a utilitarian argument: "At all events, metals are a creation of Nature, and they supply many varied and necessary needs of the human race..."
Academic text (2016) -
At all events, the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression made substantial headway towards diversification and pluralism, and two opposition newspapers were published for the first time.
Academic text (1990) -
I will be there at all events, no matter what happens.
Synonyms
56
3.9
Whatever else happens, the fact remains true or will still happen
51
2.8
No matter what, this is true or will happen
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'at' (locative/prepositional), 'all' (every), and 'events' (cases/occurrences) to yield the sense 'in every case' → 'in any case', a straightforward compositional reading. This preposition + quantifier + noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows normal English composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the meaning.
Etymology
At all events comes from older English where events simply meant 'things that happen'. The idea is that, whatever happens, the point still holds, so it means 'in any case'.