all-encompassing
4 antonyms and opposites of all-encompassing, grouped by meaning.
Adjective — Including or covering everything relevant, leaving nothing out.
Antonyms
How to Use All-Encompassing
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Neutral to slightly emphatic. Common in reviews, business writing and emotional description.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is all-encompassing hyphenated?
Yes. It is standardly written with a hyphen before the noun it modifies and usually keeps the hyphen after a verb too — the strategy is all-encompassing. Writing it as two separate words is treated as an error by most style guides.
What is the difference between all-encompassing and comprehensive?
Comprehensive is the neutral, factual word for covering everything necessary. All-encompassing is stronger and often emotional, suggesting something so total that it dominates — an all-encompassing grief, an all-encompassing obsession.
Can all-encompassing be negative?
It can. Applied to feelings, workloads or systems of control, it often implies that nothing has been left free of it, which is usually unwelcome.