whole

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Middle English hool (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”) (compare Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish hel), from Proto-Indo-European *kóhₐilus (“healthy, whole”), Welsh coel 'omen', Breton kel 'omen, mention', Old Prussian kails 'healthy', Old Church Slavonic cĕlŭ 'healthy, unhurt', Ancient Greek koîlu 'good'). Related to hale, health, and heal.

The spelling with wh-, introduced in the 15th century, was for disambiguation with hole.

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /həʊl/, SAMPA: /h@Ul/
• (US) IPA: /hoʊl/, SAMPA: /hoUl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: hole, uwole
• Rhymes: -əʊl

Adjective

whole (comparative more whole, superlative most whole)

1. entire.

   I ate a whole fish.

2. sound, uninjured, healthy.

   He is of whole mind, but the same cannot be said about his physical state.

   • 1939, Alfred Edward Housman, Additional Poems, X, lines 5-6

     Here, with one balm for many fevers found,

     Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound.

Derived terms

• whole number
• wholesome
• on the whole
• the whole nine yards
• the whole shooting match
• whole ball of wax
• whole-wheat
• whole step
• go the whole hog
• out of whole cloth

Translations

entire

Ancient Greek: ὅλος  (holos) Arabic: كامل (ar) (kāmil), كل (ar) (kull) Armenian: ողջ (hy) (oġǰ), ամբողջ (hy) (amboġǰ), (dialectal, colloquial) սաղ (hy) (saġ) Basque: oso (eu) Belarusian: цэлы (be) (cély), поўны (be) (póŭny) Bulgarian: цял (bg) (cjál) m., цяла (bg) (cjála) f., цяло (bg) (cjálo) n. Catalan: tot (ca) m. Chinese: Mandarin: 整個 (zh), 整个 (zh) (zhěnggè), 全部 (zh) (quánbù) Czech: celý (cs) m., úplný (cs) Danish: hel (da) Dutch: heel (nl) Esperanto: tuta (eo) Finnish: koko (fi), kokonainen (fi) French: entier (fr) German: ganz (de) Hindi: सारा (hi) (sārā) Hungarian: egész (hu) Icelandic: heild (is), Icelandic: heill (is) Ido: tota (io) Irish: iomlán (ga) m., go léir (ga) Italian: intero (it) Japanese: 全体の (ja) (ぜんたいの, zentai-no) Korean: 전체 (ko) (jeonche) (全體 (ko)) Latin: tōtus (la), integer (la) Lithuanian: visuminis (lt)

Macedonian: цел (mk) (cel) Norwegian: hel (no) Old Church Slavonic: цѣлъ (cělŭ) Old Irish: óg, imlán Persian: تمام (fa) (tamâm) Polish: cały (pl) m., cała (pl) f., całe (pl) n. Portuguese: inteiro Romanian: întreg (ro) Russian: целый (ru) (célyj), полный (ru) (pólnyj) Scots: hail Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: цео (sh) m., цела (sh) f., цело (sh) n., цели (sh) m. pl., целе (sh) f. pl., цела (sh) (cela) n. pl. Roman: ceo (sh) m., cela (sh) f., celo (sh) n., celi (sh) m. pl., cele (sh) f. pl., cela (sh) n. pl. Slovak: celý (sk), úplný (sk) Slovene: cel (sl) m., cela (sl) f., celo (sl) n. Spanish: entero (es) Swedish: hel (sv) Tajik: тамом (tg) (tamom) Telugu: మొత్తం (te) (mottam) Ukrainian: цілий (uk) (cílyj), повний (uk) (póvnyj) Urdu: سارا (ur) (sārā) Vietnamese: toàn thể (vi) (全體 (vi)), toàn bộ (vi) (全部 (vi)) Welsh: holl (cy), cyfan (cy) West Frisian: hiel (fy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Albanian: tërë Arabic: كل (kull), كامل (kámil) Basque: oso Catalan: tot Serbo-Croatian: cio, cijel French: entier

Hungarian: egész Icelandic: heill Italian: intero Korean: 전 (jeon) Slovak: celý Spanish: entero Cebuano: entero

Adverb

whole (comparative more whole, superlative most whole)

1. (colloquial) in entirety; entirely; wholly

   I ate a fish whole!

Translations

colloquial: in entirety

Armenian: ամբողջությամբ (hy) (amboġǰut’yamb) Finnish: kokonaan (fi), täysin (fi) German: ganz (de) Japanese: 全体を (zentai wo)

Norwegian: helt (no) Polish: całkowicie (pl) Russian: целиком (ru) (celikóm), полностью (ru) (pólnost'ju) Swedish: helt (sv)

Noun

whole (plural wholes)

1. Something complete, without any parts missing.
2. An entirety.

Meronyms

• part

Translations

something complete

Armenian: ամբողջություն (hy) (amboġǰut’yun) Catalan: tot (ca), totalitat (ca) Czech: celek (cs) m. Danish: hele (da) n., helhed (da) c. French: ensemble (fr) m., totalité (fr) f. German: Ganze (de) n. Italian: tutto (it) m.

Japanese: 全体 (zentai) Norwegian: helhet (no) m. Polish: całość (pl) f. Romanian: tot (ro) n., totalitate (ro) f., întreg (ro) m. Russian: целое (ru) (céloje) n. Slovene: celota (sl) f. Swedish: helhet (sv) c.

Derived terms

• wholemeal
• wholesome

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: p · Lord · de · #189: whole · find · got · let