Word.ws English Dictionary

a whole nother

/ə ˈhəʊl ˌnʌðə/US/ə ˈhoʊl ˌnʌðəɹ/

a whole nother determiner: an intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.

Determiner

a whole nother

  1. (US, informal, proscribed, usually) An intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.
    • "Will the fog be gone by to-morrow morning?" said Patty, disconsolately. "I don't know what we shall do if we have to be a whole 'nother day in the house and in the dark."1887 October 29, [Mary Louisa] Molesworth, “The Mysterious Guide: A Story of a London Fog”, in [Charles Peters], editor, The Girl’s Own Paper, volume IX, number 409, London: “The Leisure Hour”...
    • It's a whole nother bunch of folks over beyond the trees 'cross the tracks.1992, Thulani Davis, chapter 6, in 1959 […], New York, N.Y.: Grove Weidenfeld, Grove Press, →ISBN, page 282

Examples of a whole nother in a sentence

  • A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.2004, Margo Lanagan, “Rite of Spring”, in Black Juice, London: Gollancz, published 2007, →ISBN, page 195:
  • Executing it all well, with the feel, look and operation of a real luxury car, is a whole nother ball of wax.2009 October 1, Don Chaikin, “Long-Term Test Cars: Azera, Sedon M35, Highlander Hybrid, Liberty Sport CRD, Cobalt SS”, in Jim Meigs...

Forms of a whole nother

alternative forma whole 'nother

Origin of a whole nother

Either from a + whole + nother (“different, other”), where nother is a variant of other, rebracketed from an other, or from whole + another, with whole having been inserted by tmesis. Compare also dialectal tother from Middle English þe toþer (“the other”).

Questions about a whole nother

What does a whole nother mean?
A whole nother means an intensified form of another: an entirely different; a whole other.
How do you use a whole nother in a sentence?
A lazy blueness, from a whole nother age, is spread all above me.
What part of speech is a whole nother?
A whole nother is a determiner.
How do you pronounce a whole nother?
A whole nother is pronounced /ə ˈhəʊl ˌnʌðə/ (UK).

Words near a whole nother in the dictionary

  1. a wee bit
  2. a week from next Tuesday
  3. a week is a long time in politics
  4. a whisper down the lane
  5. a whole 'nother
  6. a whole nother
  7. a wild goose never laid a tame egg
  8. a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle
  9. a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle
  10. a woman's work is never done
  11. a world of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: a whole nother (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-a whole nother.wav.

Cite this entry: “a whole nother.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/a_whole_nother. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.