Download JSON data for be-all and end-all meaning in English (2.6kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "be-alls and end-alls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "be-alls and end-alls",
"head": "be-all and end-all"
},
"expansion": "be-all and end-all (plural be-alls and end-alls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "He thought that cars were the be-all and end-all of life."
},
{
"text": "Profit is the be-all and end-all of business."
},
{
"ref": "a. 1606, Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, act 1, scene 7, lines 4–5",
"text": "That but this blow / Might be the be-all and the end-all!"
},
{
"ref": "2014-09-23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian",
"text": "The compulsory tests in reading, writing and maths at the end of years 2 and 6 are often mistakenly seen as the be-all and end-all of a child's chances in life, and the quality of their school."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something considered to be of the utmost importance; something essential or ultimate."
],
"id": "be-all_and_end-all-noun",
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"word": "první a poslední"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"word": "kaikki kaikessa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "raison d'être"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Wichtigste"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Größte"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Höchste"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Daseinsgrund"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Maß aller Dinge"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-be-all and end-all.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "be-all and end-all"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "be-alls and end-alls",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "be-alls and end-alls",
"head": "be-all and end-all"
},
"expansion": "be-all and end-all (plural be-alls and end-alls)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "raison d'être"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English nouns",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "He thought that cars were the be-all and end-all of life."
},
{
"text": "Profit is the be-all and end-all of business."
},
{
"ref": "a. 1606, Shakespeare, William, Macbeth, act 1, scene 7, lines 4–5",
"text": "That but this blow / Might be the be-all and the end-all!"
},
{
"ref": "2014-09-23, A teacher, “Choosing a primary school: a teacher's guide for parents”, in The Guardian",
"text": "The compulsory tests in reading, writing and maths at the end of years 2 and 6 are often mistakenly seen as the be-all and end-all of a child's chances in life, and the quality of their school."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Something considered to be of the utmost importance; something essential or ultimate."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-be-all and end-all.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/d/d7/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/En-au-be-all_and_end-all.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "end-all and be-all"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cs",
"lang": "Czech",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"word": "první a poslední"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"word": "kaikki kaikessa"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "raison d'être"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Wichtigste"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Größte"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Höchste"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Daseinsgrund"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "Something considered to be of the utmost importance",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "Maß aller Dinge"
}
],
"word": "be-all and end-all"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2021-10-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2021-10-01 using wiktextract. The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.