What does “whole” mean?
- 1
adjectiveall of something; complete
I spent the whole day cleaning.
- 2
nouna complete thing made of parts
Two halves make a whole.
Whole at a glance
- Part of speech
- adjective & noun
- CEFR level
- A2 (elementary)
- Pronunciation
- /hoʊl/ · HOHL
How to use “whole” correctly
“Whole” sounds like “hole” (an opening). “On the whole” means “generally”.
Common phrases with “whole”
- the whole time
- as a whole
- on the whole
- the whole world
Synonyms, opposites and related words
Word family
- wholly
Idioms with “whole”
- The whole nine yards: Everything that is possible or available; the full amount.
“whole” is on these word lists
Learn these words next
- common adjectiveA2happening often or found in many places
- deep adjectiveA2going a long way down from the top or a long way in
- heavy adjectiveA2weighing a lot and hard to lift or carry
- huge adjectiveA2extremely large in size, amount or degree
- low adjectiveA2not high, or close to the ground
- similar adjectiveA2almost the same but not exactly
- single adjectiveA2only one
- wide adjectiveA2measuring a large distance from one side to the other