wholly
whol·ly/ˈhəʊ.li/adverb
wholly is spelled W-H-O-L-L-Y, 2 syllables: whol·ly. The wrong spelling people search most is wholey: about 230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Wholly is an adverb meaning “Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent”.
How many letters and syllables are in wholly?
| Letters | 6: W-H-O-L-L-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: whol·ly |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, wholey, about 230 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell wholly?
Wholly is spelled W-H-O-L-L-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for wholly in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is wholly?
Wholly appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce wholly?
- UK /ˈhəʊ.li/
- UK [ˈhəʊ.lɪ]
- UK /ˈhəʊl.li/
Wholly has 2 syllables, split whol·ly in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-wholly.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with wholly
Sounds like: holy (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with wholly?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as wholly from its last stressed vowel (/əʊli/, British pronunciation):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of wholly
- wholely
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wholly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adverb
- 1
Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.
wholly wrong
- 2
informalVery; to a great extent.
- 3
Exclusively and solely.
A creature wholly given to brawls and wine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does wholly come from?
From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.). Doublet of earlier holy. By surface analysis, whol(e) + -ly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).