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almost

/ˈɔl.moʊst/
adverbnoun

The ALMOST Scrabble score is 8 points; the word means very close to, but not quite, and has three anagrams.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Adverb 2 meanings

  1. Very close to, but not quite.

    “Almost all people went there.”

  2. Up to, except for a negligible set (where negligible is not universally but contextually defined).

Noun 1 meaning

  1. Something or someone that doesn't quite make it.

    “In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts.”

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English almost, from Old English eallmǣst (“nearly all, almost, for the most part”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + most.

Similar and opposite words

Similar
environnearlynighnearpracticallyvirtuallynotfornigh
Opposite
mostlysomewhatslightlyvery

ALMOST is a familiar six-letter word with a small but unusual letter-game profile: it scores 8 points, has three anagrams, and has no one-letter neighbours. Its everyday meaning covers both nearly reaching a result and allowing a tiny exception, so context matters as much as the tiles. The mismatch between familiar meaning and sparse spelling neighbours is worth remembering.

ALMOST at a glance

  • ALMOST has six letters and scores 8 points in Scrabble before board bonuses.
  • MATLOS, SMALTO, and STOMAL are its three anagrams.
  • No one-letter neighbour appears for ALMOST.
  • Among six-letter words, 5% start with A, while 6% end in T.

What does ALMOST mean?

ALMOST means very close to, but not quite. “I almost finished” says the task remains unfinished; “almost everyone” allows a small exception instead of claiming literally everyone.

The second sense is deliberately elastic: the definition calls the exception negligible, but context decides what negligible means. Use ALMOST for a narrow gap, not a completed result.

That everyday sense matches its frequency profile: ALMOST is marked common and ranks 371 in the frequency list. Its familiar meaning contrasts with MATLOS, SMALTO, and STOMAL, the three rearrangements made from the same letters.

What is the ALMOST Scrabble score?

ALMOST scores 8 points in Scrabble before board bonuses. A, L, O, S, and T each contribute 1 point; M contributes 3, so that single tile supplies more than a third of the word’s base score.

The ALMOST Scrabble score is modest because five of its six tiles are one-point letters, not because the word is short. Keep the M for its higher base value, then look for a premium square that multiplies a letter or the whole word.

ALMOST ends in OST and rhymes with MOST, POST, LOST, COST, HOST, GHOST, and FROST; the full rhyme group contains 12 words. Yet ALMOST has no one-letter neighbours, an odd contrast for a familiar word: its sound links are much richer than its one-letter spelling links.

Among six-letter words, 5% start with A, while 6% end in T. That opening-and-ending profile is less common than ALMOST’s everyday meaning might suggest, even though neither position is exceptionally rare.

Rhymes with almost

All rhymes

Questions people ask

How many anagrams can you make from ALMOST?
ALMOST has three anagrams: MATLOS, SMALTO, and STOMAL. Each uses the same six letters, rearranged into a different order. The familiar word produces an unusually unfamiliar set of rearrangements, so these are more likely to matter in a letter puzzle than in everyday conversation.
Does ALMOST have any one-letter neighbours?
No one-letter neighbours appear for ALMOST. That means the word has no listed match formed by changing just one letter while keeping the rest in place. Its 12 rhymes, including MOST and POST, offer a much fuller set of sound connections than its spelling pattern does.
How do you use ALMOST in a sentence?
Use ALMOST to say something came very close but did not quite happen: “We almost caught the bus.” It can also allow a small exception, as in “almost everyone agreed.” The second use depends on context, because the size of the exception is not fixed.

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