Talk:almost

Usage as a noun

I'm a bit puzzled by the usage as a noun. Could an example sentence be given? Scott Ritchie 08:04, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes. —Dvortygirl 08:05, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Distinction between adverb defs?

As of now, the English adverb sense has two defs: "Very close" and "Not quite". It's not clear to me what distinguishes these. Should they be merged? JesseW 08:20, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Merged. --Dan Polansky (talk) 11:23, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

Adjective?

In the sentence, "They could be almost brothers," I parse "almost" as an adverb modifying "be", not as an adjective modifying "brothers". I suppose it could go either way, but I think to keep the adjective definition, we need another example that can't be interpreted as an adverb modifying the verb "to be"; something like "How many almost brothers do you have?" but more plausible that someone might say it. 99.177.172.109 16:48, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

I think I agree with your interpretation. Cf. "For simplicity and clearness they could be hardly excelled". Equinox ◑ 16:51, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

google books:"a nearly man" brings up some interesting examples of the same basic principle. Mglovesfun (talk) 16:56, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Its occasional use as a quasi-adjective meaning ‘close to being, not quite’ (an almost Quaker; his almost impudence of manner; an almost Prime Minister) is not new ( OED 1552– ). --Backinstadiums (talk) 21:25, 17 March 2021 (UTC)

Trivia

Longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. — WP:Who R you? (Talk) 07:38, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

There are others of that length: [1] Equinox ◑ 12:26, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

almost none

When none is modified by almost, it is difficult to avoid treating the word as a plural: Almost none of the officials were interviewed by the committee. 
https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=none

--Backinstadiums (talk) 08:42, 28 July 2020 (UTC)