Toki Pona

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Alternative forms

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Glyph origin

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sitelen pona  
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sitelen sitelen  

Etymology

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From Dutch alle (all).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈale/, [ˈale] ~ [ˈali]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -e

Noun

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ale

  1. everything, anything
  2. life, existence
    Synonym: lon
  3. the universe, everything that exists
    • 2021 June 13, jan Emalan, “sike lili laso walo [Pale Blue Dot]”, in lipu kule[1]:
      ale la ma jan li lili mute mute.
      In relation to the universe, the territory of humanity is very, very small.
  4. abundance, plenty

Adjective

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ale

  1. all, every, each, any
  2. entire, whole; complete, full, total
  3. abundant, countless, bountiful, plentiful
  4. universal
  5. comprehensive, thorough
  6. general

Verb

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ale

  1. (intransitive) to pervade, to be everything or in every part
  2. (transitive) to commodify, to make universal or thorough
  3. (transitive) to generalize

Numeral

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ale

  1. one hundred

Antonyms

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Usage notes

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The words ale and ali can be used interchangeably.

The alternative form ali was originally introduced by Sonja Lang in 2002 as an equal variant of ale, following feedback that the word ala is pronounced identically to ale in some accents. ali became the most common form for a while until the mid-2010s. As of the early 2020s, ale is significantly more commonly used than ali.

In lipu Linku, a Toki Pona dictionary, the word ale is classified as "core" vocabulary, and ali is classified as an "uncommon" word, based on them being used by 90% and 32% of Toki Pona speakers respectively, according to a poll from August 2023.