wholly
adverb
Simple meaning
Completely and entirely.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hohleeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhoʊli
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adverb
Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent; (loosely, exaggeratedly) very; to a great extent.
Exclusively and solely.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent; (loosely, exaggeratedly) very; to a great extent.
Used this way, wholly 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
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- whole , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use wholly
- “He was wholly convinced.”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
To the fullest extent or degree.
To the full or entire extent.
To the fullest extent or degree.
To a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly').
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: completely and entirely
Antonyms
Sense: completely and entirely
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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.