1
: to the full or entire extent : completely
a wholly owned subsidiary
2
: to the exclusion of other things : solely
a book dealing wholly with herbs
Synonyms
Examples of wholly in a Sentence
She is wholly devoted to her children.
An infant is wholly dependent on its mother.
The claim is wholly without merit.
Recent Examples on the Web
Neither the West nor the axis will become wholly distinct political, military, and economic blocs.
—
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
With the destruction this year of a major factory producing coking coal, which is burned to mill iron ore into steel in blast furnaces, the Donbas region’s steel industry is now wholly demolished.
—Maria Varenikova Nicole Tung, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2024
Unlike regular stocks where there are leaders and laggards rising and falling wholly separate from each other, the NFT sector seems to jointly rise and fall completely in sync when crypto does the same.
—Larry Dvoskin, Rolling Stone, 18 Apr. 2024
But Ukraine is now confronting a wholly different task: repairing not just substations, but entire power plants.
—Christian Edwards, CNN, 14 Apr. 2024
Here, too, cruelty and oppression are the norm, drawing on ideology, propaganda, and militarization to convert its people from the old way of doing things to the wholly new regime.
—Hazlitt, 10 Apr. 2024
That leaves gender transition, which is easily caricatured and demonized by unscrupulous politicians aiming to rally their base against a wholly imaginary crisis.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
In February, the Board of County Commissioners in Union County, whose seat is Monroe, voted 3-2 to stop adding fluoride to drinking water at the Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant, the only water source wholly owned and operated by the county.
—Melba Newsome, USA TODAY, 10 Apr. 2024
That understanding seems to be wholly absent from the people who think that, say, heckling Raskin into silence is also a form of democracy.
—Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 9 Apr. 2024
Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
With the destruction this year of a major factory producing coking coal, which is burned to mill iron ore into steel in blast furnaces, the Donbas region’s steel industry is now wholly demolished.
—Maria Varenikova Nicole Tung, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2024
Unlike regular stocks where there are leaders and laggards rising and falling wholly separate from each other, the NFT sector seems to jointly rise and fall completely in sync when crypto does the same.
—Larry Dvoskin, Rolling Stone, 18 Apr. 2024
But Ukraine is now confronting a wholly different task: repairing not just substations, but entire power plants.
—Christian Edwards, CNN, 14 Apr. 2024
Here, too, cruelty and oppression are the norm, drawing on ideology, propaganda, and militarization to convert its people from the old way of doing things to the wholly new regime.
—Hazlitt, 10 Apr. 2024
That leaves gender transition, which is easily caricatured and demonized by unscrupulous politicians aiming to rally their base against a wholly imaginary crisis.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
In February, the Board of County Commissioners in Union County, whose seat is Monroe, voted 3-2 to stop adding fluoride to drinking water at the Yadkin River Water Treatment Plant, the only water source wholly owned and operated by the county.
—Melba Newsome, USA TODAY, 10 Apr. 2024
That understanding seems to be wholly absent from the people who think that, say, heckling Raskin into silence is also a form of democracy.
—Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 9 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wholly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near wholly
Cite this Entry
“Wholly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wholly. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
wholly
adverb
whol·ly
ˈhōl-(l)ē 
1
: to the full or entire extent : completely
a wholly different view
2
: to the exclusion of other things : solely
a book devoted wholly to sports cars
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