wholly
Syllables: whol·lyUK/ˈhəʊ.li//ˈhoʊ.li/
wholly adverb: completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.
Adverb
wholly (not comparable)
- Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.
- wholly wrong
- a wholly-owned subsidiary
- Very; to a great extent.
- ‘You ain't very strong, are you?’ said a neighbour with sympathetic intent, and ‘You don't have very good health, I expect?’ asked another. Mr Colville said, ‘He do look wholly pale, that's a fact.’ The word ‘wholly’ thus used puzzled me for some time. In Suffolk it is used for ‘very’ or ‘really’...1930, Adrian Bell, Corduroy, Faber and Faber
- Exclusively and solely.
- A creature wholly given to brawls and wine.
- Synonyms:
- entirely
wholly meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
wholly in Tamil
- முற்றிலும், முழுதும், முழுவதும்
wholly in Urdu
- بالکل, مکمل طور پر, سر بسر, سراسر
wholly in Bengali
- সম্পূর্ণরূপে, পুরোপুরি
wholly in Malayalam
- wholly, total
- ആകെ āke
More languagesFewer languages
- wholly in Odia
- ବିଲ୍କୁଲ୍ bilkul
- wholly in Sanskrit
- कृत्स्नशस् kṛtsnaśas
- wholly in Assamese
- গোটেই gütei
- wholly in Pashto
- ساپټ sâpaṭ
Examples of wholly in a sentence
- And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet haue troden, shall be thine inheritance, and thy childrens for euer, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 14:9:
- The explosion rocked the Riteng Computer Accessory Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pegatron, in Shanghai’s Songjiang district.2011 December 20, Hayley Tsukayama, “Report: Apple partner Pegatron under scrutiny after blast”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC...
- Mr Colville said, ‘He do look wholly pale, that's a fact.’ The word ‘wholly’ thus used puzzled me for some time.1930, Adrian Bell, Corduroy, Faber and Faber:
Synonyms of wholly
Antonyms
Forms of wholly
| alternative form | wholely |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | wholy |
Origin of wholly
From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.). Doublet of earlier holy. By surface analysis, whol(e) + -ly.
Words formed from wholly
Words that rhyme with wholly
12 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about wholly
- What does wholly mean?
- Wholly means completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.
- What is wholly in Tamil?
- Wholly in Tamil is முற்றிலும், முழுதும், முழுவதும். See Wholly meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use wholly in a sentence?
- And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet haue troden, shall be thine inheritance, and thy childrens for euer, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
- What part of speech is wholly?
- Wholly is an adverb.
- How do you pronounce wholly?
- Wholly is pronounced /ˈhəʊ.li/ (UK).
Words near wholly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wholly (page history and authors); wholly (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wholly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wholly (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ആകെ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ବିଲ୍କୁଲ୍ (Odia) (page history and authors); कृत्स्नशस् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); গোটেই (Assamese) (page history and authors); ساپټ (Pashto) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-wholly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wholly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wholly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.