We use all (of) the (with an article), when we're talking about a specific group of the noun. When 'all' is a pronoun, it can come with both singular and plural nouns. When 'all' refers to a group of people/things as a unified whole, it comes with a singular verb, but when 'all' refers to multiple groups.
The meaning of all is the whole amount, quantity, or extent of.
The whole of (used in referring to quantity, extent, or duration). There are 63 meanings listed in oed's entry for the word all, two of which are labelled obsolete. The governor mounted a halfhearted campaign for the presidency but didn't. When you talk about all of one thing, you mean the whole thing.
See examples of all used in a sentence. Every one (of), or the complete amount or number (of), or the whole (of): When we say all (of) the students, we're talking about a specific group of students. Games staking all of one's chips, as in poker.
Discover everything about the word all in english:
The whole number of (used in referring to individuals or particulars, taken collectively): Putting all of one's available resources into an effort: How to use all in a sentence. The whole of (used in referring to quantity, extent, or duration):
When shakespeare writes, in as you like it, “ all the world's a stage,” he means the whole world. See ‘meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
