entire
Noun pluralentires
Pluralentires
- 1Describing a thing as the whole of it, with every part included and nothing missing or removed, as in the entire day or the entire country.
The fire destroyed the entire building within an hour.
He read the entire report before the meeting.
UsageUsually after the or a possessive: the entire building, her entire life. With of, say the whole of or all of.
Similarcomplete, total, whole, undivided
Oppositepartial, incomplete
Note
The core sense, and the one the word's history explains: Middle English entere, from Latin integer, "whole," itself from a root meaning "untouched." English took integer from the same source. Entire usually comes before its noun, but it can follow, as in John Donne's 1624 line "No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe."
- 2All of something taken together, with no part left out.
‘Then is the City Magistrate the entire of your family now?’
1924, EM Forster, A Passage to IndiaIn the entire of the Poems we never hear of a merchant ship of the Greeks.
1876, WE Gladstone, Homeric SynchronismUsageFound in the entire of; today the entirety of or the whole of is usual.
Note
Now archaic, but it lasted well into modern prose. Gladstone writes "the entire of the Poems" in 1876, and in E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924) a character asks whether the magistrate is "the entire of your family now."
- 3In botany, of a leaf, petal or corolla: having a smooth, unbroken edge or form, not cut into teeth, lobes or separate parts.
Magnolia leaves are entire, their margins free of any teeth.
The botanist sketched an entire leaf beside a deeply toothed one.
Note
In descriptive botany the word often closes a clipped list of traits, as in the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club (1899): "scales smooth, entire." Its usual contrast is with toothed or lobed margins, though descriptions also hedge it, as in margins more or less entire. Said of a corolla, it can also mean made in one piece, not split into separate petals.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club (1899) contains the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
- Entire margins contrast with toothed or lobed margins. publications.mgcafe.uky.edu
- Botanical descriptions can qualify entire with expressions such as “more or less entire.” plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
- Entire can describe a corolla consisting of a single piece. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4Describing a male animal of any kind, such as a horse, dog, or cat, that still has its testicles because it has not been castrated.
The colt was left entire so he could be used at stud.
Stable hands treat entire horses with extra caution.
Similaruncastrated, intact
Oppositecastrated, gelded, neutered
Note
The animal-husbandry use, and it sits comfortably after a verb. Markus Zusak's Bridge of Clay (2018) has "he was entire, which meant his bloodline could carry on." The word means not castrated, which is why breeders care about it; its opposite is castrated, or gelded for a horse. Turned into a noun, the same idea gives the word for a stallion.
- 5A male horse that has not been castrated; a stallion.
Only an experienced rider should handle an entire.
The champion entire sired dozens of foals.
Oppositegelding
Note
The idea behind the "not gelded" adjective, made into a count noun for horses: an entire. It is specialized enough that a character in James Meek's The People's Act of Love (2005) stops to explain it: "A stallion which has not been castrated."
- 6Morally whole or pure; unmixed and without flaw.
No man had ever a heart more entire to the king.
Can we date this quote?, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in EnglandSee now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth not make thee / wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us.
c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth,. Epilogue.”Similarwholehearted, unreserved
Oppositehalfhearted
Note
Two shades of meaning appear in older writing. In Shakespeare's Second Part of Henry the Fourth, "entire cowardice" stands beside "pure fear" and means sheer, unmixed cowardice. Clarendon's "a heart more entire to the king" means wholly loyal, and the construction with to names the person owed that loyalty. Clarendon even compares the word, which modern usage, treating entire as absolute, would avoid.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Shakespeare's Second Part of Henry the Fourth pairs entire cowardice with pure fear; the context supports the interpretation sheer cowardice. shakespeare.mit.edu
- Clarendon used the quoted phrase to describe loyalty, with to introducing its recipient. upload.wikimedia.org
- Clarendon used entire comparatively. upload.wikimedia.org
- 7Of a function, complex-differentiable at every point of the complex plane.
- 8In philately, a complete envelope or folded letter preserved intact, including any stamps and postal markings it bears.
- 9Porter or stout as supplied directly from the brewery.
- 10Situated within something or belonging to its inner part, as distinct from its outside.
Depp is the wound, that dints the parts entire
1595, Edmund Spenser, “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VI”
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
This word comes from Middle English 'entere', borrowed from Anglo-Norman 'entier', which goes back to Latin 'integer' meaning 'whole'. It is a doublet of 'entier' and 'integer'.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Entire comes through Middle English entere and Anglo-Norman entier from Latin integer, meaning whole. en.wiktionary.org
- Entire is a doublet of entier and integer. en.wiktionary.org