Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
of all time

of all time

171 3.2
A phrase people use to say someone or something is the best ever
  • idiom
translation icon : de todos los tiempos
  • Imagine what I had to do to be the greatest of all time.
  • greatest of all time
  • book of all time
  • most renowned of all time

He's the greatest negotiator of all time now.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • This is the worst idea of all time.

    Accepted (2006)

  • The New York Times called it, "perhaps one of the most important pop events of all time."

    Academic text (2017)

  • This is the greatest party of all time!

    Dirty Dishes (2022)

  • Probably one of the greatest pressure players of all time.

    Any Given Sunday (1999)

  • You will be remembered as one of the greatest space scientists of all time.

    The Black Hole (1979)

  • The wheel is often described as the most significant invention of all time.

    Academic text (2003)

  • However, my favorite movie of all time is Apocalypse Now.

  • The final disposition of the greatest musical genius of all time is a complete mystery.

    Academic text (2013)

  • My favorite comedian of all time is Neil Hamburger.

  • This is the greatest party of all time!

Synonyms

ever
vsof all time
∞ 1.0

At any time, often in questions or negative sentences

is used to stress something is the utmost or most important across history
all-time
vsof all time
242 4.2

Better, worse, or higher than anything before now

places absolute emphasis on being the single best or worst in history

Surface Forms

of all time positive

Morphology

of + all + time

The meaning 'ever' or 'throughout history' is directly derivable from combining 'all' (the whole) + 'time' (time), with 'of' functioning as the standard linking preposition in superlative expressions. This compositional pattern is common across many languages (e.g. Spanish 'de todos los tiempos', French 'de tous les temps'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Of all time makes you imagine every moment in history, that is all the time. So when someone is called 'the best of all time', it means they are the best among everyone and everything that has ever existed.