whole

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Complete; with no part missing.

   I ate a whole pizza by myself.

2. 2
   noun

   All of something, including all its parts.

   Europe should be considered as a whole.

3. 3
   adj

   With nothing removed; not refined.

   I prefer whole milk to skimmed milk.

4. 4
   adv

   In one piece; entirely.

   The snake swallowed the egg whole.

Common collocations

• whole weekend Adjective + noun
• the whole truth Adjective + noun

From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”). The spelling with wh-, attested since ca. 1400, represents an excrescent /w/, which developed in words with initial /(h)ɔː/, /(h)oː/ in southwestern dialects of Middle English. While this pronunciation did not establish itself in the standard language (except in one), the spelling survived in whole and whore, in the former case likely reinforced by a desi…

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