whole
Noun pluralwholes
Often confused with hole
Pluralwholes
- 1Complete in itself, with nothing taken away or split off.
The storm knocked out power across the whole city for two days.
He read the whole report before the meeting began.
UsageComes after the, a or a possessive: the whole city, my whole life. With plurals, all is more usual: all the cities.
Similarcomplete, entire, total, full
Oppositepartial, incomplete
- 2Used to emphasize the full extent or degree of something, often with a sense of surprise or scale.
Moving abroad opened up a whole new way of thinking for her.
Fixing the engine turned into a whole other ordeal.
UsageCommon patterns: a whole lot, a whole new world, a whole other problem.
Similarcomplete, entire, total
Note
It can also be wedged into a fixed phrase for sarcastic emphasis, as in Keith Maillard's Looking Good (2006): "thanks a whole fuck of a lot." That line is vulgar, and the vulgarity comes from the inserted word, not from whole.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Keith Maillard wrote Looking Good, published in 2006. keithmaillard.com
- Looking Good contains the exact quoted phrase. en.wiktionary.org
- 3The entirety of something, or a complete thing made up of all its parts, considered as a single unit.
We need to judge the proposal as a whole, not piece by piece.
The whole of her savings went toward the new house.
UsageCommon phrases: as a whole (taken together), on the whole (in general), the whole of + noun.
- 4Retaining all its natural constituents, with none removed, as with whole milk or whole grain.
She switched from skim to whole milk because she missed the creamy taste.
Nutritionists often recommend whole foods over heavily processed ones.
Similarunprocessed, unrefined, intact
- 5Entirely; in one complete and undivided piece.
The crowd swallowed the rumor whole, asking no questions.
The heron caught the frog and swallowed it whole.
UsageComes after the object: swallow something whole, literally or figuratively. Compare ate a whole fish, which just says none was left.
Similarcompletely, entirely, fully
Oppositepiecemeal
Less common meanings
- 6Sound and uninjured; healthy and free of damage.
The doctors worked through the night to make the patient whole.
Years after the accident, she no longer felt entirely whole.
UsageOften in make someone whole and feel whole.
Similarhealthy, sound, well, fit, hale
Oppositebroken, injured, damaged
Note
Here the older meaning survives, the one the "entire" sense grew out of. It can take of to mean healed from something. Housman writes "Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound" in his Additional Poems. Hale and well are its synonyms, and it covers the mind as readily as the body, as in of whole mind.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The meaning ‘sound and healthy’ predates and gave rise to the ‘entire’ meaning. researchgate.net
- Housman wrote the quoted line in a poem included in Additional Poems. kalliope.org
- The poem belongs to the first eighteen Additional Poems, published in Laurence Housman’s A.E.H. in 1937; the expanded selection appeared in Collected Poems in 1939. kalliope.org
- 7Still unworked, as of ground, coal, or mineral deposits not yet excavated.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Old English hāl ("healthy, safe") became Middle English hol or hole ("healthy, unhurt, whole"), and the line runs back through Proto-Germanic *hailaz to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "healthy, whole." The wh- spelling arrived in the 15th century and reflected an extra /w/ sound in speech that never took hold in standard English. Hale, health, heal and holy are related words.