- [singular] the whole of something all that there is of something
- The scheme would cover the whole of the UK.
- The effects will last for the whole of his life.
Homophones hole | wholehole whole/həʊl//həʊl/- hole noun
- She caught a fish through a hole in the ice.
- whole adjective
- He hadn't told us the whole story.
- whole adverb (informal)
- The series has taken her career to a whole new level.
- whole noun
- The camera moves and you see the whole of the palace.
Grammar Point half / whole / quarterhalf / whole / quarter- Half, whole and quarter can all be nouns:
- Cut the apple into quarters.
- Two halves make a whole.
- Whole is also an adjective:
- I’ve been waiting here for a whole hour.
- Half is also a determiner:
- Half (of) the work is already finished.
- They spent half the time looking for a parking space.
- Her house is half a mile down the road.
- I waited for half an hour.
- I waited for a half an hour.
- Half can also be used as an adverb:
- This meal is only half cooked.
Extra Examples- Technology permeates the whole of our lives.
- The library takes up the whole of the first floor.
- The project involved the whole of the university.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + whole- comprise
- cover
- embrace
- …
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- [countable] a thing that is complete in itself
- Four quarters make a whole.
- Taken as a whole, the image is slightly disappointing.
- The subjects of the curriculum form a coherent whole.
- Harmony in music is essentially about the right relationship of the parts to the whole.
Extra Examples- At this age, babies do not yet combine sounds into a meaningful whole.
- He tried to fit the pieces of evidence together to make a coherent whole.
- She was struggling to organize her ideas into a coherent whole.
- The author examines each aspect of Roman society, then attempts to summarize the complex whole.
- The text must be seen as part of a larger whole.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- coherent
- cohesive
- harmonious
- …
- form
- make
- make up
- …
- as a whole
Word OriginOld English hāl, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch heel and German heil, also to the verb hail (senses 1-3). The spelling with wh- (reflecting a dialect pronunciation with w-) first appeared in the 15th cent.
Idioms
See whole in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee whole in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishas a whole
- as one thing or piece and not as separate parts
- Unemployment is higher in the north than in the country as a whole.
- The festival will be great for our city and for the country as a whole.
- for the community/economy/industry as a whole
on the whole
- considering everything; in general
- On the whole, I'm in favour of the idea.
Check pronunciation:
whole