Meaning

3 senses
  1. (not comparable)Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.

    wholly wrong

    a wholly-owned subsidiary

    to a complete degree or to the full or entire extent; Completely or entirely

  2. Completely and entirely; to the fullest extent.

    (dialectal, excessive, informal, not comparable)Very; to a great extent.

  3. (not comparable)Exclusively and solely.

    A creature wholly given to brawls and wine.

Examples

27 sentences
  1. The statement is not wholly true.

    Це ствердження не зовсім вірне. — shanghainese

    ruУтверждение не совсем верно. — odexed

    deDie Aussage stimmt nicht ganz. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

  2. I'm not wholly convinced you're right.

    ruЯ не совсем уверен, что вы правы. — marafon

    deIch bin nicht ganz überzeugt, daß ihr recht habt. — Waldelfe

  3. I'm not wholly convinced that you're right.

    ruЯ не совсем уверен, что вы правы. — marafon

    deIch bin nicht ganz überzeugt, daß ihr recht habt. — Waldelfe

  4. I feel wholly responsible.

  5. You can trust him to some degree, but not wholly.

    Певною мірою йому довіряти можна, але не повністю. — deniko

Origin

From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.). Doublet of

From Middle English holly, holeliche, holliche (also as halely, hallich, etc.). Doublet of earlier holy. By surface analysis, whol(e) + -ly.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Synonyms

8 synonyms
exclusively:entirelyB1
to the fullest extent:completelyB1
Close in meaning

Antonyms

1 antonyms
completely:partlyA2

Word family

2 related words
Relatedwhole
Derivedunwholly

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
wholly — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto