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very nearly; all but:
almost every house; almost the entire symphony; to pay almost nothing for a car; almost twice as many books.
Contemporary Examples

We like that concussions [are] almost to zero on ground contact.
Navy Football Player Will McKamey Died This Week From Brain Injury. Who’s to Blame? Michael Daly March 26, 2014

The CIA-trained SAVAK was arguably the most thuggish secret police in history, with almost limitless powers.
What I Saw at the Revolution Porochista Khakpour February 10, 2009

The film had premiered at Cannes in May 2001, almost a decade after Somalia, three months before nine eleven and everything after.
“It’s Too Soon”: Black Hawk Down 20 Years Later Lea Carpenter October 2, 2013

Pasto is almost 8,300 feet up in the mountains, so it was cold and crisp, with a blaze of stars across the sky.
Spirit Tripping With Colombian Shamans Chris Allbritton August 23, 2014

Indeed, almost everything in My Struggle eventually turns into its opposite.
Fear And Self-Loathing In Scandinavia: The Fiction Of Karl Ove Knausgaard Ted Gioia May 27, 2014

Historical Examples

You may be almost the first girl to apply, or you may be among the latest, but not the too latest.
Grace Harlowe’s Return to Overton Campus Jessie Graham Flower

The request, thus aided by flattery, was almost unanimously granted.
Philothea Lydia Maria Child

“But it’s true all the same,” he went on when they got outside, almost as if he had not broken his speech.
Changing Winds St. John G. Ervine

They’re really one and a half sizes too small, and almost kill me.
Punchinello, Vol. 1. No. 20, August 13, 1870 Various

When Atlee arrived at Bruton Street, the welcome that met him was almost cordial.
Lord Kilgobbin Charles Lever

adverb
little short of being; very nearly
adv.

Old English eallmæst “nearly all, for the most part,” literally “mostly all;” see all + most. Modern form from 15c.