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whole

adjective · noun · adverb

Simple meaning

Complete, with nothing missing; all of something.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hohl
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhoʊl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Entire, undivided.

  2. Used as an intensifier.

  3. Sound, uninjured, healthy.

  4. of food

    From which none of its constituents has been removed.

noun

  1. Something complete, without any parts missing.

  2. An entirety.

adverb

  1. colloquial

    In entirety; entirely; wholly.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Something complete, without any parts missing.

Used this way, whole is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use whole

  • “How big is that part compared to the whole?”noun
  • “Gave his whole attention.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Entire

whole body

Including / complete

whole numberwhole family

Assemblage

whole countrywhole system

Other combinations

whole worldwhole lifewhole story

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • wholenessnounDerived noun · specialist

    An undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.

  • whollyadverbDerived adverb

    To a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly').

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • whole meal flournounCompound term

    Flour made by grinding the entire wheat berry including the bran.

  • whole milknounCompound term

    Milk from which no constituent (such as fat) has been removed.

  • whole namenounCompound term

    A word that names the whole of which a given word is a part.

  • whole notenounCompound term

    A musical note having the longest time value (equal to four beats in common time).

  • whole numbernounCompound term

    Any of the natural numbers (positive or negative) or zero.

  • whole restnounCompound term

    A musical rest equal in duration to four beats in common time.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: something complete or without any parts missing

full

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.