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wholesale

noun · adjective · adverb · verb

Simple meaning

The sale of products, often in large quantities, to retailers or other merchants.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hohlsayl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhoʊlseɪl

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.

noun

  1. business

    The sale of products, often in large quantities, to retailers or other merchants.

adjective

  1. Of or relating to sale in large quantities, for resale.

  2. figurative

    Extensive, indiscriminate, all-encompassing; blanket.

adverb

  1. In bulk or large quantity.

  2. figurative

    Indiscriminately.

verb

  1. Sell in large quantities

  2. To sell at wholesale.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

More ways to use wholesale

  • “I can sell it to you wholesale.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Sale / selling

wholesale tradewholesale market

Wholesale

wholesale price

Other combinations

wholesale destructionwholesale societywholesale businesswholesale slaughterwholesale grocery

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • wholesalernounInflected form

    Someone who buys large quantities of goods and resells to merchants rather than to the ultimate customers.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

Sense: of or relating to sale in large quantities

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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.