# whole

> English word · Adjective · IPA /həʊl/ · frequency rank #333

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

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **woe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-woe)
- **whom** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whom)
- **wolf** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wolf)
- **wore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wore)
- **woke** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-woke)
- **wool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wool)
- **whos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whos)
- **whoo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whoo)
- **wold** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wold)
- **wile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wile)
- **wove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wove)
- **whose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whose)
- **wrote** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wrote)
- **whore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whore)
- **Wolfe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wolfe)
- **whoop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whoop)
- **Woolf** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-woolf)
- **Whyte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whyte)
- **whorl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whorl)
- **wholly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-wholly)

## Common misspellings (7)
`hwole`, `whhole`, `whloe`, `whoel`, `wholle`, `wohle`, `wwhole`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/whole