along about
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
At a point in time, often unexpectedly
Literally: near or around
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Each tree consists of just two branches, 2–3 ft long, running along about a foot off the ground.
And I suppose they go along about I don't expect they do about six miles an hour.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “along about” mean?
At a point in time, often unexpectedly Literally: near or around
Is “along about” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.