Altogether vs All Together: One Word or Two?

Altogether and all together sound exactly the same, so speech never gives you away, but writing does. They are not variants of one word; they carry different meanings and do different jobs. The reassuring part is that a single test settles almost every case, so you never have to guess.

Altogether: completely, or in total

Altogether, written as one word, is an adverb. It means completely, entirely, or in total, on the whole.

• The film was altogether too long.
• That comes to forty pounds altogether.
• Altogether, it was a good decision.

In each of these, altogether means something like completely or taken as a whole. There is no group of people standing together in sight.

All together: everyone in one place

All together, written as two words, means everyone or everything in the same place or at the same time.

• The family was all together for the first time in years.
• Keep the documents all together in one folder.
• Let us sing the chorus all together.

Here the phrase is about togetherness, people or things gathered as a group.

The test that decides it

Try to pull all and together apart with other words. If the sentence still makes sense, you need the two-word form.

• "We were all together" becomes "we were all standing together". It works, so it is two words.
• "It was altogether strange" cannot become "it was all strange together". It fails, so it is one word.

That single check handles nearly every sentence you will meet.

Quick guide

Ask what you mean. Completely, or in total? One word: altogether. Everyone or everything in one place? Two words: all together, and remember you can slip a word between all and together. One sentence holds both: "Now that we are all together, the plan seems altogether more possible."

A spell-checker will not rescue you here, because both forms are correctly spelled, which is exactly how this slip sneaks into otherwise careful writing. Other easily muddled pairs, like look vs see vs watch and among vs between, repay the same attention. A free English level test will show you how well your written English handles the details automatic spelling tools miss.