whole

whole1 [ houl ] adjective ***

1. ) all of something:

His whole body was trembling.

My whole family came to watch me playing in the concert.

The whole process will take months.

the whole thing: Come on let's just forget the whole thing.

the whole story/truth: She told Tilly the whole story about what had happened.

2. ) not divided or broken:

Add three whole eggs plus two additional yolks.

Some of the statues were broken, but others were still whole.

3. ) used for emphasizing what you are saying:

a whole range/series: There is a whole range of therapies that might work.

a whole bunch: A whole bunch of kids were waiting to get his autograph.

a whole lot: I feel a whole lot better today.

a whole host (=a lot): We've had a whole host of problems.

in the whole world: They're the best pizzas in the whole world.

a ) the whole point used for emphasizing that something is the main reason for something else:

The whole point of this meeting was to discuss finances.

the whole...thing/bit

everything that is involved in a particular activity or situation or in being a particular type of person:

He loves acting, but he hates the whole movie-star thing.

╾ whole|ness noun uncount

whole

whole 2 [ houl ] noun, quantifier count usually singular ***

a complete thing made of several parts:

Two halves or four quarters make a whole.

as a whole

considering all the parts of something as one unit:

His views are not popular with the community as a whole.

on the whole

used for talking about the general situation:

It was a pretty good conference on the whole.

On the whole, she felt that the report was fair.

the whole of

all of something:

I was off work for the whole of January.

The problem will affect the whole of Europe.

whole

whole 3 [ houl ] adverb

1. ) as a single piece:

The bird swallowed the fish whole.

2. ) completely:

E-commerce is a whole new way of doing business.