Alright vs. All Right: One Word or Two?
The Traditional View
- All right = the standard, universally accepted spelling
- Alright = informal variant that many consider incorrect
Most style guides and editors still prefer “all right” as two words.
All Right: The Safe Choice
“All right” works in every context—formal writing, professional emails, academic papers:
- “Are you all right?” ✓
- “The answers were all right.” ✓
- “All right, let’s begin.” ✓
Nobody will ever mark “all right” as wrong.
Alright: The Casual Sibling
“Alright” appears constantly in informal writing, texts, and dialogue:
- “I’m doing alright.” (casual)
- “Alright, I’ll be there.” (casual)
- “Everything’s gonna be alright.” (song lyrics, casual speech)
It’s been used for over a century, but purists still resist it.
The Interesting Nuance
Some writers use “alright” to mean “satisfactory” and “all right” to mean “all correct”:
- “The food was alright.” (acceptable, okay)
- “The answers were all right.” (every answer was correct)
This distinction isn’t official, but it’s a clever way to use both.
Context Matters
| Context | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Academic writing | all right |
| Business emails | all right |
| Text messages | alright (fine) |
| Fiction dialogue | either (character voice) |
| Song lyrics | alright (common) |
The Reality Check
“Alright” isn’t going away. Language evolves, and “alright” follows the same path as “already” and “altogether”—words that were once two words and merged over time.
But for now, if you want to play it safe: all right is always all right.
Remember
- All right = correct everywhere, preferred in formal writing
- Alright = widely used informally, but still disputed