English Explanatory Dictionary

whole

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Entire, undivided.
  2. Used as an intensifier.
  3. Sound, uninjured, healthy.
  4. From which none of its constituents has been removed.
  5. As yet unworked.
adv
  1. In entirety; entirely; wholly.
noun
  1. Something complete, without any parts missing.
  2. An entirety.

Pronunciation

/həʊl/ [hɜʊ̯ɫ] [hɒʊ̯ɫ] [-.ɫ̩] /hoʊl/ [hoʊ̯ɫ] [hoːɫ] En-us-whole.ogg /hɔːl/ /hwɔːl/

Word forms

whole wholer more whole wholest most whole hole wholes

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).

Synonyms

total complete entire holo- one overall whole 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 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

Derived words

20 whole dollars an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind as a whole a whole 'nother a whole nother committee of the whole double whole double whole note go the whole hog go whole hog go the whole pile have one's whole life ahead of one heart-whole make whole mean the whole world to one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch on the whole out of whole cloth part-whole bias part-whole model put one's whole pussy into quadruple whole quadruple whole note run the whole show smoke the whole pack the whole bang shoot the whole caboodle the whole nine yards the whole shop the whole while the whole world the whole world and his dog twenty whole dollars unwholesome upon the whole upon the whole matter whole-ass whole bag of tricks whole ball of wax whole blood whole-blood coagulation time whole boiling whole box of tricks whole chebang whole child whole cloth whole enchilada whole food whole-footed whole gale whole-genome duplication whole gip whole-gip whole grain whole-grain whole-gyp whole gyp whole-handedly whole-heartedly whole-heartedness

Translations

Albanian: tërë Albanian: krejt Arabic: كَامِل Arabic: كُلّ Armenian: ողջ Armenian: ամբողջ Armenian: սաղ Aromanian: ãntreg Aromanian: ntreg Assamese: গোটেই Assamese: আটাই Avar: сахаб Azerbaijani: bütöv Bashkir: бөтөн Basque: oso Belarusian: цэ́лы Belarusian: по́ўны Central Bikol: bilog Bulgarian: ця́л Catalan: sencer Catalan: tot Cherokee: ᎬᏩᏃᏍᏓ Chinese Mandarin: 整個 /整个 Chinese Mandarin: 全部 Ngazidja Comorian: -ontsi Czech: celý Czech: úplný Old Czech: cělý Dalmatian: intric Danish: hel Dutch: heel Esperanto: tuta Finnish: koko Finnish: kokonainen French: entier French: tout West-Frisian: hiel Friulian: intîr Galician: enteiro Georgian: სრული Georgian: მთელი Georgian: მთლიანი German: ganz Gothic: 𐌰𐌻𐌻𐍃 Greek: ολόκληρος Ancient Greek: ὅλος Hebrew: שלם Hebrew: תם Hindi: सारा Hungarian: egész Hungarian: teljes Icelandic: allur Ido: tota Indonesian: seluruh Indonesian: antero Irish: iomlán Irish: go léir Old Irish: óg Old Irish: imlán
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