whole

/həʊl/

//həʊl// adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"whole" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“whole” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #333. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#333
frequency rank, English
1,759
“W” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Entire, undivided.

Corpus desk

Index EN-whole · whole · English

whole · rank #333 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #333
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,759
  • PHOTO-FINISH war

Nearest frequency peer: war (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “whole”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “whole” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

whole vs woe
60% similar
whole vs whom
60% similar
whole vs wolf
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for whole
PropertyValue
Headwordwhole
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
IPA/həʊl/
Letters5
Frequency rank#333
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “whole”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).wholelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “war” (#332), “car” (#334), “together” (#331). Among 1,759 “W” headwords, “whole” is #333. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around whole (IPA /həʊl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #333 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for whole, with forms such as "hwole", "whhole", and "whloe". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "woe", "whom", "wolf", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”). The spelling w… The correct English form is whole, spelled W-H-O-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Entire, undivided.
  2. 2
    Entire, undivided.
  3. 3
    Sound, uninjured, healthy.
  4. 4
    From which none of its constituents has been removed.
  5. 5
    As yet unworked.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how whole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I ate a whole fish.
  2. During the whole time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant[…]

Etymology

From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”). The spelling with wh-, attested since ca. 1400, represents an excrescent /w/, which developed in words with initial /(h)ɔː/, /(h)oː/ in southwestern dialects of Middle English. While this pronunciation did not establish itself in the standard language (except in one), the spelling survived in whole and whore, in the former case likely reinforced by a desire to disambiguate from hole. Cognates Compare West Frisian hiel, Low German heel/heil, Dutch heel, German heil, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hel, Norwegian Nynorsk heil; also Welsh coel (“omen”), Breton kel (“omen, mention”), Old Prussian kails (“healthy”), Old Church Slavonic цѣлъ (cělŭ, “healthy, unhurt”). Related to hale, health, hail, hallow, heal, and holy.

This word in other languages

entero(Español)entier(Français)ganz(Deutsch)inteiro(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hwole
  • whhole
  • whloe
  • whoel
  • wholle
  • wohle
  • wwhole

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of whole - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

hwole2whhole1whloe2whoel2wholle1wohle2wwhole1
Edit distance from "whole"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "whole"?
"whole" is spelled W-H-O-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /həʊl/.
What does "whole" mean?
As an adjective, "whole" means: Entire, undivided.
What words are commonly confused with "whole"?
"whole" is commonly confused with "woe", "whom", "wolf". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "whole"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "whole" is /həʊl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "whole"?
From Middle English whol, hol, hole (“healthy, unhurt, whole”), from Old English hāl (“healthy, safe”), from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”). The ... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "whole", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

makes#330maybe#338black#326story#341

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

united7 variantsgames7 variantsleast7 variantsmeans7 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list