: 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
Brittany Allen
july 10, Literary Hub, 10 July 2025
The brand is currently direct-to-consumer, and the infusion will go toward launching into wholesale.
—James Manso, Footwear News, 3 July 2025
Clare Sebastian, CNN Money, 11 July 2025
The business brings in roughly $450,000 per year from its Jersey City outpost and robust catering and wholesale operations.
—Nicolas Vega
kaan Oguz, CNBC, 10 July 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
Lisa Lockwood, WWD, 20 Feb. 2025
The idea was to create the first ever international drugstore chain operator and drug wholesaling company.
—Phil Wahba, Fortune, 17 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for wholesale
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show current usage.
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Noun
But we’re never asked to invest in the characters’ petty dramas, wholesale.
—Brittany Allen
july 10, Literary Hub, 10 July 2025
The brand is currently direct-to-consumer, and the infusion will go toward launching into wholesale.
—James Manso, Footwear News, 3 July 2025
Adjective
If the post-Soviet years saw a wholesale redistribution of property away from the Russian state through rapid privatization, the Ukraine war years are characterized by the reverse.
—Clare Sebastian, CNN Money, 11 July 2025
The business brings in roughly $450,000 per year from its Jersey City outpost and robust catering and wholesale operations.
—Nicolas Vega
kaan Oguz, CNBC, 10 July 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
Alivia launched online in 2020 and in 2021 started wholesaling its clothing.
—Lisa Lockwood, WWD, 20 Feb. 2025
The idea was to create the first ever international drugstore chain operator and drug wholesaling company.
—Phil Wahba, Fortune, 17 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 24 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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