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As time unfolds, however, we see alright being used with greater frequency.
As the below graph shows, from the s onward, alright has seen its use increase considerably, signaling that it may eventually become standard as other words such as altogether and already once did. Altogether and already are much older and much more established words, however, dating back to the Middle Ages. Alright is a relatively new variant, with a first recorded use in For this reason, the two-word all right still dominates in popular usage and is much more heavily preferred, being used at a rate 8 times that of the one-word alright.
In fact, in the American Heritage Dictionary usage survey, two-thirds of the Usage Panel rejected the use of the one-word alright , while over 90 percent accepted the two-word all right is similar constructions.
Things may change in the future, but when writing an essay for school or book for publishing today, you should avoid the use of the single-word alright. All Right , as two words, is a phrase that can function as both an adjective and an adverb. All right has a few different meanings: Anytime you are looking to use all right , it should appear as two separate words. English spelling was fluid for a very long time, and the words all right, already, although, and the others had various forms over several hundred years—with spaces, hyphens, alternate vowels, one l , two l's —until the 18th century when they settled into the spellings that we recognize today.
Only all right developed a variant modern spelling after that settling. Alright dates—in literature anyway—to Mark Twain circa Which makes it a bit of an upstart.
Is it acceptable to write 'alright' as one word instead of two? The answer to that is not quite as simple as you may think. Some distinguish between "alright" and "all right" by using "alright" to mean "fine, good, okay" and "all right" to mean "all correct". Alternatively (or in addition to.
And lexical upstarts don't tend to win popularity contests. Some people assert that there's a difference in meaning, that "The answers were all right" means that all the answers were correct, and that "The answers were alright" means that the answers were adequate or satisfactory. If you like that distinction you can use it, but the fact is that "The answers were all right" can mean either that the answers were all correct or that they were satisfactory. All right can—and does—do everything that alright does, and it has the added bonus of making your English teacher happy.
Which leads us to this concluding recommendation: There's nothing essentially wrong with it. Use all right if you need people to know that you know what's all right—at least according to your English teacher and a lot of other folks.
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In fact, in the American Heritage Dictionary usage survey, two-thirds of the Usage Panel rejected the use of the one-word alright , while over 90 percent accepted the two-word all right is similar constructions. Need even more definitions? Related stories by this author. English spelling was fluid for a very long time, and the words all right, already, although, and the others had various forms over several hundred years—with spaces, hyphens, alternate vowels, one l , two l's —until the 18th century when they settled into the spellings that we recognize today. They need confidence and there's enough ability about them to convince me we're going to be alright. How we chose 'justice'. The awkward case of 'his or her'.
How to use a word that literally drives some people nuts. The awkward case of 'his or her'. Test your knowledge - and maybe learn something along the way.
Word of the Year 'Justice' is our Word of the Year. Behind the Scenes How we chose 'justice'. Find the Cousins Identify the word pairs with a common ancestor.
All right or alright?