wholly
/ˈhəʊ.li/
"wholly" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wholly” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #9,275. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,275
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent; (loosely, exaggeratedly) very; to a great extent.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wholly · wholly · English
wholly · rank #9,275 · 8 variants · 7 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,275
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 7 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH VR
Nearest frequency peer: VR (-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 “wholly”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Vikings
Vikings
90,729 corpus weight
- vodka
vodka
90,728 corpus weight
- VR
VR
90,727 corpus weight
- wholly
wholly
90,726 corpus weight
- zoom
zoom
90,725 corpus weight
- accidental
accidental
90,724 corpus weight
What this shows “wholly” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wholly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈhəʊ.li/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #9,275 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “wholly”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around wholly (IPA /ˈhəʊ.li/), anadverb. Corpus frequency is #9,275 among 1,759 “W” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for wholly, with forms such as "hwolly", "whholly", and "whloly". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "willy", "whorl", "woolly", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.), equivalent to whole + -ly. Doublet of holy. The correct English form is wholly, spelled W-H-O-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent; (loosely, exaggeratedly) very; to a great extent.
- 2Exclusively and solely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wholly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Wholly, in my opinion, this is wrong.
And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet haue troden, shall be thine inheritance, and thy childrens for euer, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
Etymology
From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.), equivalent to whole + -ly. Doublet of holy.
Antonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hwolly
- whholly
- whloly
- whollyy
- wholy
- wholyl
- wohlly
- wwholly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wholly - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "wholly"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wholly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).