Alright

Part of speech: adjective, adverb

Pronunciation: /ˌɔlˈɹaɪt/

Definitions

1. Adequate in nature or quality, often used informally to indicate agreement or approval, as well as serving to provide reassurance in conversational contexts
2. Being acceptable or sufficient for a particular purpose; serving to indicate agreement or approval in an informal manner; employed to offer reassurance during conversations
3. Meeting a standard or requirement in an adequate manner; functioning as an informal term to signify consent; used to calm or confirm understanding among people

Etymology: "Alright" is a case where the spelling has long lagged behind the word. It is built from "all" and "right," and the two words were once written separately, as they still are in the phrase "all right." Old English had a compound "eallriht," meaning roughly "all-right, just, exactly," so the sense of complete correctness was present from the start. The modern fused spelling appeared much later, and for a long time many writers and editors treated "alright" as a mistake. The one-word form is what linguists call a univerbation: two words that fuse into a single unit. The "all" in it is the same root as in "all" meaning everything, while "right" carries its older sense of correct or proper. Over centuries the phrase drifted from strict correctness toward general adequacy, so that something "all right" could be merely acceptable rather than excellent, which explains its informal use as a reassurance or a mild yes.

Synonyms: okay, fine, acceptable, satisfactory, sufficient

Antonyms: unsatisfactory, inadequate, unacceptable