: the sale of commodities in quantity usually for resale (as by a retail merchant)
1
: performed or existing on a large scale especially without discrimination
wholesale slaughter
2
: of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of commodities in quantity for resale
a wholesale grocer
: in a wholesale manner
wholesaled; wholesaling
: to sell (something) in quantity usually for resale
: to sell in quantity usually for resale
Examples of wholesale in a Sentence
Adjective
The crops originated from wholesale growers.
Is that price retail or wholesale?
Verb
The company wholesales clothing to boutiques in the area.
Recent Examples on the Web
Gabrielle Fonrouge, CNBC, 26 June 2025
Historically, bison roamed in sprawling herds across much of the continent, but were slaughtered for their furs wholesale in the late 1800s by settlers.
—Owen Clarke, Outside Online, 11 June 2025
Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 29 June 2025
Through July 15 Applications for Conejo Valley Audubon Society Lawns to Habitat & Ashes to Habitat Grants; successful applicants will receive $250 worth of bird-friendly native plants (roughly 40 to 50 plants at wholesale prices) for their new residential landscapes.
—Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2025
Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2012
ByteStyle, the company’s code of values, preaches a culture that could have been lifted wholesale from Google or Amazon: diverse, inclusive, radically honest and transparent.
—Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022
Phil Wahba, Fortune, 17 June 2025
The company currently wholesales the brand at Nordstrom, Revolve, Shopbop, Level Shoes, Galeries Lafayette, John Lewis, La Maison Simons, La Rinascente, De Bijenkorf, The Iconic, among others.
—Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 5 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for wholesale
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Noun
The decision to partner with brands such as Aritzia and come back to Amazon highlights the scrappy approach Nike is taking to wholesale.
—Gabrielle Fonrouge, CNBC, 26 June 2025
Historically, bison roamed in sprawling herds across much of the continent, but were slaughtered for their furs wholesale in the late 1800s by settlers.
—Owen Clarke, Outside Online, 11 June 2025
Adjective
This, combined with a return to lower-margin wholesale channels, put pressure on profitability.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 29 June 2025
Through July 15 Applications for Conejo Valley Audubon Society Lawns to Habitat & Ashes to Habitat Grants; successful applicants will receive $250 worth of bird-friendly native plants (roughly 40 to 50 plants at wholesale prices) for their new residential landscapes.
—Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2025
Adverb
It got picked up wholesale from blog to blog and Tumblr to Tumblr so rapidly that the pedigree of it got lost.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2012
ByteStyle, the company’s code of values, preaches a culture that could have been lifted wholesale from Google or Amazon: diverse, inclusive, radically honest and transparent.
—Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022
Verb
The idea was to create the first ever international drugstore chain operator and drug wholesaling company.
—Phil Wahba, Fortune, 17 June 2025
The company currently wholesales the brand at Nordstrom, Revolve, Shopbop, Level Shoes, Galeries Lafayette, John Lewis, La Maison Simons, La Rinascente, De Bijenkorf, The Iconic, among others.
—Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 5 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for wholesale
Cite this Entry
“Wholesale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wholesale. Accessed 8 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
wholesale
1 of 3 noun
whole·sale
ˈhōl-ˌsāl 
: the sale of goods in large quantity usually for resale (as by a store owner)
wholesale
2 of 3 adjective1
: of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of goods in quantity for resale
a wholesale grocer
wholesale prices
2
: done on a large scale : general
wholesale changes in the team's roster
wholesale
adverb
wholesale
3 of 3 verb
wholesaled; wholesaling
: to sell usually in large amounts for resale
wholesaler
noun
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