WHOLE
What does "WHOLE" mean?
Complete in itself; containing all of something with no part missing.
Meanings
- Entire; full; not divided or lacking any part. She ate the whole pizza by herself.
- A complete thing made up of all its parts. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- In sound, undamaged, or healthy condition. After months of recovery he finally felt whole again. figurative
Did you know?
- The 'w' in 'whole' is a late impostor: the word was spelled 'hol' or 'hal' for centuries before scribes glued a silent 'w' onto the front in the 1400s.
Word origin
From Old English 'hal' meaning 'healthy, uninjured, entire', from Proto-Germanic 'hailaz'; the unhistorical 'w' was added in the 15th century. The same root gives 'hale', 'heal', and 'health'.
Remember it
WHOLE shares its root with HEAL and HEALTH - to be whole is to be unbroken.
A little poem
Break the loaf and count each crumb-
still it longs to be one sum.
couplet
Wordplay
- I tried to eat a whole pie, but I only managed a hole in it.
What it teaches
Wholeness is not perfection; it is the refusal to abandon any part of yourself.
Quick facts
What does WHOLE mean?
Complete in itself; containing all of something with no part missing.
Is WHOLE a valid word?
Yes — WHOLE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is WHOLE?
WHOLE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does WHOLE come from?
From Old English 'hal' meaning 'healthy, uninjured, entire', from Proto-Germanic 'hailaz'; the unhistorical 'w' was added in the 15th century. The same root gives 'hale', 'heal', and 'health'.
What can WHOLE teach us?
Wholeness is not perfection; it is the refusal to abandon any part of yourself.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.