What does ことごとく mean?


I would like to know what does ことごとく mean. When searching for it on Google,
some sites tell it means "completely" (like すっかり, for example), another site
says it means "all" (like 全部) and other sites say it means "all, every" like
すべて, so I don't know what does it usually mean.

In this site, for example, it is said that ことごとく means these three meanings in
funtion of the kanji: <https://eigobu.jp/magazine/kotogotoku> , but I would
like to know if this word has effectively various meaning or has one main and
predominant meaning.

If besides telling the meaning, you could please give me example sentences
with this word I would be really thankful.




According to Sanseido Daijirin (三省堂 スーパー大辞林), this is a somewhat archaic word
which was read in [kanbun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun) texts by
means of [kundoku](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A8%93%E8%AA%AD) (reading
the kanji of a Chinese text in Japanese). It comes from the word 事事 (ことごと),
meaning 'everything', and the suffix く. This gives it an adverbial format
(although it may not strictly conform to modern adverbial behavior), and it is
usually (but not always) followed by a verb.

The standard dictionary meanings are '`all; entirely; completely; without
exception`'. Exactly which one of those translations is most appropriate will
depend on the details of the context. But they are not different concepts. For
example:

> **ことごとく** 失敗する to fail completely  
>  財産を **ことごとく** 失う to lose all your assets (to lose everything)  
>  法律を **ことごとく** 守る to obey the law without exception

As for your point about using alternative kanji for the word, that is
certainly possible but I would argue that those are stylistic variations of
the meaning, rather than standard usages. Stylistic variations are an
interesting aspect of kanji (there are some good threads about it here if you
search), but there is no need to use them unless you have a specific purpose
in doing so. Sticking with standard characters is perfectly fine. The kanji
listed in dictionaries like Daijirin, Kojien and Shinmeikai (悉くand 尽く) are
standard, although the word is very often written in hiragana.




According to Sanseido Daijirin (三省堂 スーパー大辞林), this is a somewhat archaic word
which was read in [kanbun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun) texts by
means of [kundoku](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%A8%93%E8%AA%AD) (reading
the kanji of a Chinese text in Japanese). It comes from the word 事事 (ことごと),
meaning 'everything', and the suffix く. This gives it an adverbial format
(although it may not strictly conform to modern adverbial behavior), and it is
usually (but not always) followed by a verb.

The standard dictionary meanings are '`all; entirely; completely; without
exception`'. Exactly which one of those translations is most appropriate will
depend on the details of the context. But they are not different concepts. For
example:

> **ことごとく** 失敗する to fail completely  
>  財産を **ことごとく** 失う to lose all your assets (to lose everything)  
>  法律を **ことごとく** 守る to obey the law without exception

As for your point about using alternative kanji for the word, that is
certainly possible but I would argue that those are stylistic variations of
the meaning, rather than standard usages. Stylistic variations are an
interesting aspect of kanji (there are some good threads about it here if you
search), but there is no need to use them unless you have a specific purpose
in doing so. Sticking with standard characters is perfectly fine. The kanji
listed in dictionaries like Daijirin, Kojien and Shinmeikai (悉くand 尽く) are
standard, although the word is very often written in hiragana.

