Whole vs hole
Whole means complete, with nothing missing, as in the whole cake. Hole is a noun for an empty space or an opening in something, as in a hole in your sock.
Think of the whole world. Whole and world both start with w.
whole adjective
Complete, with nothing taken away or split off.
- The storm knocked out power across the whole city for two days.
- He ate the whole pizza by himself.
hole noun
An empty space in a surface, or an opening that goes all the way through something.
- Workers dug a large hole for the building's foundation.
- The moths left several holes in the wool blanket.
Watch out
- Whole and hole sound exactly the same, so you must pick the spelling by meaning.
- Whole can also be a noun for all of something taken together. It still has the w.Each department contributes something essential to the whole.
- Whole milk and whole grain have none of their natural parts taken out. They are spelled with a w.She buys whole milk, not skim, for her coffee.
Test yourself
My sock has a blank in the toe.
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hole. It is an opening that goes through the sock.
She read the blank book in one night.
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whole. It means all of the book, with nothing left out.
The dog dug a blank under the fence.
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hole. It is an empty space dug into the ground.
We need to judge the plan as a blank, not piece by piece.
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whole. As a whole means all of it taken together.