adj
Meaning 1
Entire, undivided.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- I ate a whole fish.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: total, complete, entire, holo-, one, overall, whole
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
whole
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /həʊl/
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Received-Pronunciation: [hɜʊ̯ɫ]
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Received-Pronunciation: [hɒʊ̯ɫ]
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Received-Pronunciation: [-.ɫ̩]
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British, Southern, Standard: /hɔw/
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British, Southern, Standard: /hɔɫ/
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Canada, General-American: /hoʊl/
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Canada, General-American: [hoʊ̯ɫ]
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Canada, General-American: [hoːɫ]
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Canada, General-American: [-.ɫ̩]
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General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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Early, Modern: /hɔːl/
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Early, Modern: /hwɔːl/
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rhymes with -əʊl
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homophone: hole
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CMU ARPABET: HH OW1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Entire, undivided.
Used as an intensifier.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- I brought a whole lot of balloons for the party. She ate a whole bunch of french fries.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: total, complete, entire, holo-, one, overall, whole
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 3
Sound, uninjured, healthy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- He is of whole mind, but the same cannot be said about his physical state.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hale, well, all oak and iron bound, buxom, fit, hail, hale and hearty, healthy, in the pink of health, lusty, normal, sound, sound as a barrel, sound as a bell, whole
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 4
From which none of its constituents has been removed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- whole wheat; whole milk
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 5
As yet unworked.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: business, mining
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adv
Meaning 6
In entirety; entirely; wholly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: colloquial
Examples
- I ate a fish whole!
- That’s a whole other story.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: absolutely, all-out, tout à fait, all the way, blind, altogether, at large, at length, cap-a-pie, categorically, completely, detailly, downright, entirely, exhaustively, finally, first and last, flat-out, flat out, from aardvark to zymurgy, from A to Z, from head to toe, from soup to nuts, from stem to stern, from the rooter to the tooter, from top to bottom, from top to toe, fully, handsomely, heartily, head to foot, head to tail, head to toe, hook, line, and sinker, in detail, in full, lock, stock, and barrel, one hundred percent, out-and-out, out and out, outright, particularly, perfectly, plumb, properly, purely, quite, right, root and branch, soundly, soup-to-nuts, straight up, through and through, top to tail, top to toe, totally, totes, to the bone, to the core, to the full, utterly, well and truly, whole, whole cloth, wholly
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
Something complete, without any parts missing.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- This variety of fascinating details didn't fall together into an enjoyable, coherent whole.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: entireness, totality, entirety, fullness, pleroma, totalness, whole, wholeness
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
An entirety.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective
Meaning 9
including all components without exception; being one unit or constituting the full amount or extent or duration; complete
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- gave his whole attention
- a whole wardrobe for the tropics
- the whole hog
- a whole week
- the baby cried the whole trip home
- a whole loaf of bread
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: fractional
adjective
Meaning 10
(of siblings) having the same parents
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- whole brothers and sisters
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: half
adjective satellite
Meaning 11
acting together as a single undiversified whole
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a solid voting bloc
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: solid, unanimous
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 12
exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- hale and hearty
- whole in mind and body
- a whole person again
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: hale
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
Meaning 13
not injured
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: unharmed, unhurt, unscathed
Antonyms: none provided
adverb
Meaning 14
to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly')
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- he was wholly convinced
- entirely satisfied with the meal
- it was completely different from what we expected
- was completely at fault
- a totally new situation
- the directions were all wrong
- it was not altogether her fault
- an altogether new approach
- a whole new idea
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: wholly, entirely, completely, totally, all, altogether
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 15
an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- how big is that part compared to the whole?
- the team is a unit
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: unit
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: object, physical object
Narrower terms: congener, living thing, animate thing, natural object, artifact, artefact, assembly, item, sum, total, totality, aggregate
noun
Meaning 16
all of something including all its component elements or parts
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- Europe considered as a whole
- the whole of American literature
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: concept, conception, construct
Narrower terms: unit, compound, complex, composite
History
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kéh2ilos Proto-Germanic *hailaz Proto-West Germanic *hail Old English hāl Middle English hol English whole From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh2ilos (“healthy, whole”). The spelling with wh-, attested since ca. 1400, represents an excrescent /w/, which developed in words with initial /(h)ɔː/, /(h)oː/ in southwestern dialects of Middle English. While this pronunciation did not establish itself in the standard language (except in one), the spelling survived in whole and whore, in the former case likely reinforced by a desire to disambiguate from hole. Cognates Compare West Frisian hiel, Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hel, Norwegian Nynorsk heil; also Welsh coel (“omen”), Breton kel (“omen, mention”), Old Prussian kails (“healthy”), Old Church Slavonic цѣлъ (cělŭ, “healthy, unhurt”). Related to hale, health, hail, hallow, heal, and holy. False cognate of Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos).
Across languages
Translations
215 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Albanian: tërë — entire
- Albanian: krejt — entire
- Arabic: كَامِل (kāmil) — entire
- Arabic: كُلّ (kull) — entire
- Armenian: ողջ (oġǰ) — entire
- Armenian: ամբողջ (amboġǰ) — entire
- Armenian: սաղ (saġ) — entire
- Aromanian: ãntreg — entire
- Aromanian: ntreg — entire
- Assamese: গোটেই (gütei) — entire
- Assamese: আটাই (atai) — entire
- Avar: сахаб (saxab) — entire
- Azerbaijani: bütöv — entire
- Bashkir: бөтөн (bötön) — entire
- Basque: oso — entire
- Belarusian: цэ́лы (cély) — entire
- Belarusian: по́ўны (pówny) — entire
- Central Bikol: bilog — entire
- Bulgarian: ця́л (cjál) — entire
- Catalan: sencer — entire
- Catalan: tot — entire
- Cherokee: ᎬᏩᏃᏍᏓ (gvwanosda) — entire
- Chinese Mandarin: 整個 /整个 (zhěnggè) — entire
- Chinese Mandarin: 全部 (quánbù) — entire
- Ngazidja Comorian: -ontsi — entire
- Czech: celý — entire
- Czech: úplný — entire
- Old Czech: cělý — entire
- Dalmatian: intric — entire
- Danish: hel — entire
- Dutch: heel — entire
- Esperanto: tuta — entire
- Finnish: koko — entire
- Finnish: kokonainen — entire
- French: entier — entire
- French: tout — entire
- West-Frisian: hiel — entire
- Friulian: intîr — entire
- Galician: enteiro — entire
- Georgian: სრული (sruli) — entire
- Georgian: მთელი (mteli) — entire
- Georgian: მთლიანი (mtliani) — entire
- German: ganz — entire
- Gothic: 𐌰𐌻𐌻𐍃 (alls) — entire
- Greek: ολόκληρος (olókliros) — entire
- Ancient Greek: ὅλος (hólos) — entire
- Hebrew: שלם (shalém) — entire
- Hebrew: תם (tam) — entire
- Hindi: सारा (sārā) — entire
- Hungarian: egész — entire
- Hungarian: teljes — entire
- Icelandic: allur — entire
- Ido: tota — entire
- Indonesian: seluruh — entire
- Indonesian: antero — entire
- Irish: iomlán — entire
- Irish: go léir — entire
- Old Irish: óg — entire
- Old Irish: imlán — entire
- Italian: intero — entire
- Japanese: 全体の (zentai no) — entire
- Kashubian: cały — entire
- Khmer: ទាំងមូល (tĕəng muul) — entire
- Korean: 전체 (jeonche) — entire
- Ladin: ntier — entire
- Ladin: intier — entire
- Latin: tōtus — entire
- Latin: integer — entire
- Latin: universus — entire
- Latin: cunctus — entire
- Latvian: viss — entire
- Latvian: vesels — entire
- Lezgi: сагъ (saġ) — entire
- Lithuanian: visuminis — entire
- Macedonian: цел (cel) — entire
- Malay: seluruh — entire
- Māori: tūtahi — entire
- Māori: katoa — entire
- Norman: entchi — entire
- Norwegian: hel — entire
- Occitan: entièr — entire
- Old Church Slavonic: цѣлъ (cělŭ) — entire
- Old English: eall — entire
- Old Norse: allr — entire
- Ossetian: ӕгас (ægas) — entire
- Persian: تمام (tamâm) — entire
- Persian: سراسر (sarâsar) — entire
- Pohnpeian: unsek — entire
- Polabian: ganz — entire
- Polish: cały — entire
- Portuguese: inteiro — entire
- Romanian: întreg — entire
- Romansh: entir — entire
- Russian: це́лый (célyj) — entire
- Russian: це́льный (célʹnyj) — entire
- Russian: це́лостный (célostnyj) — entire
- Russian: по́лный (pólnyj) — entire
- Russian: весь (vesʹ) — entire
- Sanskrit: सर्व (sárva) — entire
- Sanskrit: विश्व (viśva) — entire
- Sardinian: interu — entire
- Scots: hail — entire
- Serbo-Croatian: це̏о — entire
- Serbo-Croatian: cȅo — entire
- Sicilian: nteru — entire
- Slovak: celý — entire
- Slovak: úplný — entire
- Slovene: cel — entire
- Lower Sorbian: ceły — entire
- Spanish: entero — entire
- Swahili: -ote — entire
- Swahili: -zima — entire
- Swedish: hel — entire
- Tabasaran: сагъиб (saġib) — entire
- Tajik: тамом (tamom) — entire
- Telugu: మొత్తం (mottaṁ) — entire
- Tooro: -ona — entire
- Turkish: tam — entire
- Turkish: tüm — entire
- Turkish: bütün — entire
- Ukrainian: ці́лий (cílyj) — entire
- Ukrainian: по́вний (póvnyj) — entire
- Urdu: سارا (sārā) — entire
- Venetan: intier — entire
- Venetan: intiero — entire
- Venetan: intrego — entire
- Venetan: intriego — entire
- Vietnamese: toàn thể — entire
- Vietnamese: toàn bộ — entire
- Welsh: holl — entire
- Welsh: cyfan — entire
- Zazaki: pêro (diq) — entire
- Catalan: sencer — food with no constituents removed
- Catalan: integral — food with no constituents removed
- French: entier — food with no constituents removed
- Galician: integral — food with no constituents removed
- German: Voll- — food with no constituents removed
- Greek: πλήρης (plíris) — food with no constituents removed
- Hebrew: מלא (malé) — food with no constituents removed
- Hungarian: teljes — food with no constituents removed
- Italian: integrale — food with no constituents removed
- Polish: pełny — food with no constituents removed
- Portuguese: integral — food with no constituents removed
- Romanian: integral — food with no constituents removed
- Russian: це́льный (célʹnyj) — food with no constituents removed
- Spanish: integral — food with no constituents removed
- Albanian: e tëra , tëresisht — colloquial: in entirety
- Albanian: krejtësisht — colloquial: in entirety
- Armenian: ամբողջությամբ (amboġǰutʻyamb) — colloquial: in entirety
- Assamese: গোটেই (gütei) — colloquial: in entirety
- Bulgarian: изцяло (izcjalo) — colloquial: in entirety
- Danish: helt — colloquial: in entirety
- Esperanto: tute — colloquial: in entirety
- Finnish: kokonaan — colloquial: in entirety
- Finnish: täysin — colloquial: in entirety
- Galician: enteiro — colloquial: in entirety
- Galician: completamente — colloquial: in entirety
- German: ganz — colloquial: in entirety
- Hebrew: בשלמות (beshlemút) — colloquial: in entirety
- Hebrew: כּוּלּהּ — colloquial: in entirety
- Hebrew: כּוּלּוׁ — colloquial: in entirety
- Hungarian: egészben — colloquial: in entirety
- Hungarian: egyben — colloquial: in entirety
- Hungarian: teljesen — colloquial: in entirety
- Italian: interamente — colloquial: in entirety
- Japanese: 全体を (zentai o) — colloquial: in entirety
- Latvian: viss — colloquial: in entirety
- Latvian: vesels — colloquial: in entirety
- Norwegian: helt — colloquial: in entirety
- Polish: całkowicie — colloquial: in entirety
- Portuguese: inteiro — colloquial: in entirety
- Romanian: total — colloquial: in entirety
- Russian: целико́м (celikóm) — colloquial: in entirety
- Russian: по́лностью (pólnostʹju) — colloquial: in entirety
- Swedish: helt — colloquial: in entirety
- Ukrainian: цілко́м (cilkóm) — colloquial: in entirety
- Armenian: ամբողջություն (amboġǰutʻyun) — something complete
- Bulgarian: цялост (cjalost) — something complete
- Catalan: tot — something complete
- Catalan: totalitat — something complete
- Czech: celek — something complete
- Danish: hele — something complete
- Danish: helhed — something complete
- Esperanto: tuto — something complete
- Esperanto: tutaĵo — something complete
- Finnish: kokonaisuus — something complete
- French: ensemble — something complete
- French: totalité — something complete
- Galician: todo — something complete
- Galician: totalidade — something complete
- Galician: total — something complete
- German: Ganze — something complete
- Greek: όλο (ólo) — something complete
- Hebrew: שלם (shalém) — something complete
- Hungarian: egész — something complete
- Indonesian: utuh — something complete
- Italian: tutto — something complete
- Japanese: 全体 (zentai) — something complete
- Latin: omnia — something complete
- Latvian: vesels — something complete
- Latvian: veselais — something complete
- Latvian: veselums — something complete
- Norwegian: helhet — something complete
- Polish: całość — something complete
- Portuguese: todo — something complete
- Romanian: tot — something complete
- Romanian: totalitate — something complete
- Romanian: întreg — something complete
- Romanian: total — something complete
- Russian: це́лое (céloje) — something complete
- Slovene: celota — something complete
- Spanish: totalidad — something complete
- Swedish: helhet — something complete
- Ukrainian: ці́ле (cíle) — something complete
- Waray-Waray: bug-os — something complete
Real reading context