Word.ws English Dictionary

wholsom

wholsom is the obsolete spelling of wholesome.

Meaning of wholesome

Adjective

wholesome (comparative more wholesome or wholesomer, superlative most wholesome or wholesomest)

  1. Promoting good physical health and well-being.
    • I prethee go, and get me ſome repaſt,
      I care not what, ſo it be holſome foode.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. Promoting moral and mental well-being.
    • Though hard, my friends, yet wholesome are the truths, taught in affliction's school, whence the pure soul rises refined, and soars above the world.1750, “Theodora”, Thomas Morell (lyrics), George Frideric Handel (music)
  3. Favorable to morals, religion or prosperity; sensible; conducive to good; salutary; promoting virtue or being virtuous.
    • A wholeſome tongue is a tree of life: but peruerſneſſe therein is a breach in the ſpirit.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 15:4, column 1
  4. Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.
  5. Decent; innocuous; sweet.
    • Sometimes white Lyllies did their Leaves afford,
      With wholſom Polly-flow'rs, to mend his homely Board: […]1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 128...

Forms of wholsom

comparativemore wholsom
comparativewholsomer
superlativemost wholsom
superlativewholsomest

Questions about wholsom

What is wholsom the obsolete spelling of?
Wholsom is the obsolete spelling of wholesome.

Words near wholsom in the dictionary

  1. whollest
  2. wholly
  3. Wholock
  4. wholphin
  5. wholphins
  6. wholsom
  7. wholsome
  8. wholsomer
  9. wholsomest
  10. wholth
  11. wholy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wholsom (page history and authors); wholesome (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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Cite this entry: “wholsom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wholsom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.