Whole Definition
An entirety.
Other Word Forms of Whole
Noun
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Whole
- as a whole
- on the whole
- as a whole
- a whole lot of
- made up out of whole cloth
- on the whole
Origin of Whole
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From Middle English hool (“healthy, unhurt, whole"), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe"), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound") (compare West Frisian hiel, Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish hel), from Proto-Indo-European *kóhâ‚‚ilus (“healthy, whole") (compare Welsh coel (“omen"), Breton kel (“omen, mention"), Old Prussian kails (“healthy"), Albanian gjallë (“alive, unhurt"), Old Church Slavonic цѣлъ (cÄ›lÅ, “healthy, unhurt"). Related to hale, health, hail, and heal.
From Wiktionary
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Middle English hole unharmed from Old English hāl kailo- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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The spelling with wh-, introduced in the 15th century, was for disambiguation with hole.
From Wiktionary
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