mother of all

Definitions

Used before a plural noun to form a compound noun having the sense of: the greatest or largest of (its kind); the most epic example of (its kind).

colloquial, idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“, etc.”

“Near-synonym: Big One”

“Driving to a dinner engagement, a Parisian woman gets stuck in the mother of all traffic jams, offers a ride⟳ to a handsome pedestrian, and enters a fleeting affair that catches both of them by surprise⟳.”

“Five mail-order ice creams. Four pregnant women. Welcome⟳ to the mother of all taste⟳ tests.”

““[Donald Trump's tariff proposal] is a prescription for the mother of all stagflations,” Larry Summers, Treasury secretary during the Clinton administration, told Bloomberg TV back in June.”

CEFR level