whole
/hoʊl/
Reviewed on
Also a noun
Meaning
Entire, complete, or including all components without exception.
He spent the whole afternoon organizing files in his home office.
Have you read the whole book already, or just the first few chapters?
Intact, unbroken, or not divided into parts.
The recipe calls for three whole cloves and a stick of cinnamon.
Drop the tomatoes in whole without chopping them.
Collocations
- whole life
- whole world
- whole time
- whole grain
- whole milk
- eat whole
- swallow whole
Synonyms
- entire
- complete
- intact
- undivided
Antonyms
- partial
- broken
Idioms
whole new ballgame
a completely different situation requiring new skills
Managing a large team is a whole new ballgame compared to working alone.
whole nine yards
everything possible or available in a particular situation
They offered him a signing bonus, health benefits, and the whole nine yards.
Meaning
An entire thing or entity considered as complete in itself.
The committee looked at the plan as an integrated whole rather than individual steps.
Do individual departments function well, or does the whole suffer from poor communication?
Collocations
- as a whole
- part of a whole
- the greater whole
Synonyms
- totality
- entity
Antonyms
Idioms
on the whole
used to state a general conclusion despite exceptions
On the whole, the conference was very productive despite a few minor delays.