whollywhol‧ly /ˈhəʊl-li $ ˈhoʊl-/ ●○○ adverb formal 
a wholly satisfactory solution The report claimed that the disaster was wholly unavoidable.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Help came from a wholly unexpected source.
- She still did not wholly trust her instincts.
- The city council's proposals are wholly unacceptable.
- The commission found that the officer on duty at the time was not wholly responsible.
- The evidence we have is not wholly reliable.
- But despite their godlike powers, they had not wholly forgotten their origin, in the warm slime of a vanished sea.
- In Britain at least, swearing on television has become commonplace and wholly unremarkable.
- It has not been a wholly successful policy.
- That is, they involve a second and wholly different relation, a semantic or intentional relation between themselves and whatever they represent.
- The community health services then came to be financed wholly by central government.
- The oxygen extraction process may then become wholly independent of resupply from Earth.
- This is not to say that it was wholly accurate.
Longman Language Activatora complaint
· The carpet is completely ruined.· She felt completely relaxed.· Keith's dad was completely different from what I'd expected.· I intended to give you the card on Saturday but I completely forgot.· Sometimes the UK seems completely isolated from the main stream of European culture.
especially spoken say this when you strongly agree with something or approve of something, or to emphasize strong adjectives: absolutely right/correct: · You're absolutely right - we can't all fit in one car.absolutely marvellous/amazing/brilliant: · That's an absolutely brilliant idea.absolutely certain/sure: · Are you absolutely sure you don't mind?absolutely exhausted/soaked/ruined etc: · By the end of the day, I was absolutely exhausted.
use this especially to say that you have completely understood something or have everything that you need: fully understand/realize/appreciate: · I can fully understand your concern.fully aware/informed: · Please keep me fully informed of any developments.fully furnished/equipped: · The house is fully furnished, including washer and dryer.
use this especially to show that you completely disagree with something or that you are very annoyed about it: totally refuse/ignore/reject etc: · He totally ignored my advice.totally impossible/unacceptable/ridiculous etc: · What you're saying is totally ridiculous.· Myers said that a two-year prison sentence for rape was totally unacceptable and inadequate.
completely and in every possible way - use this especially in negative sentences, or with 'almost': · At the very beginning of the project, Paul made it clear that he would be entirely in control.not entirely: · I'm not entirely sure what she meant.· The reasons for his departure weren't entirely clear.consist entirely of: · The audience consisted almost entirely of journalists.depend entirely on: · The foundation depends entirely on voluntary contributions.
in every possible way - use this especially in negative sentences: not wholly responsible/reliable/committed etc: · The evidence we have is not wholly reliable.· The commission found that the officer on duty at the time was not wholly responsible.wholly unacceptable/unexpected/unfounded etc: · The city council's proposals are wholly unacceptable.· Help came from a wholly unexpected source.
use this especially to describe things that are completely wrong, untrue, impossible etc: utterly impossible/useless/worthless etc: · Without their help it would have been utterly impossible to arrange the conference.· Whether you like her or not is utterly irrelevant.utterly reject/spoil/destroy etc: · We utterly reject the philosophy of compulsory wage control.
use this to talk about an extreme situation or something extreme that someone has done: positively disgusting/harmful/dangerous etc: · The food in this place isn't just bad, it's positively disgusting.· Her performance was positively marvellous.
use this to emphasize how strong a feeling or quality is or how bad a situation is: · It was a complete surprise - I didn't have any idea they were planning a party.· Don't pay any attention to him - the guy's a total idiot!· Nobody can say with absolute certainty how much oil there is in Alaska.· By any measurement, our corrections program is an utter failure.
use this to say that something is true in every detail or part: · The two drawings are identical in every way.· The plans are unworkable in every respect.
use this when a word or phrase that you say is true in every possible way that it could be understood: · There are still men who want to be in every sense, the "head of the household'.in every sense of the word: · She was a true sportswoman -- a professional in every sense of the word.
if someone is good, bad etc through and through , every part of their character and behaviour shows that they are like that: · Don't trust him. He's rotten through and through.· Einstein was a realist through and through.· After 30 years in Queensland, he felt he was an Australian through and through.
: whole-heartedly agree/approve/support etc completely and willingly: · Her father whole-heartedly approved of their decision to get married.· Rowan whole-heartedly agreed that the company needed to do more to improve its ties to the community.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES I thought his remark was highly appropriate, given the circumstances. Courtenay played the role in an utterly convincing way. The building’s electrical system was completely inadequate. His comments were wholly inappropriate on such a solemn occasion.
I thought his remark was highly appropriate, given the circumstances.· Both sides claim to be fully committed to the peace process.
Courtenay played the role in an utterly convincing way. The building’s electrical system was completely inadequate. His comments were wholly inappropriate on such a solemn occasion.· Frege’s theory is not entirely satisfactory.
· From his point of view qualifications are wholly useless.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· Is not this subject wholly appropriate for the Minister, because his Government have had their chips?· There are occasions when it is wholly appropriate for you to break the diet and eat something that is not allowed.· It was wholly appropriate that to reach this landmark the jockey would have to produce one of his greatest efforts.
· Instead of being a development of an inherent or generally available faculty, it is a specialized technique wholly dependent on specific training.· Most of our employees are wholly dependent on their employment with us for their survival.· But this area, too, was wholly dependent on engineers for its existence.· It evoked a huge and apparently permanent armament industry, now wholly dependent... on government contracts.· Ecgberht may have received wide support in Kent and can not necessarily be regarded as wholly dependent on Offa for his kingship.· But they are still highly circumscribed in their authority, and wholly dependent upon their salaried employment.· Accordingly, he was wholly dependent upon Adenauer for his position, and could present no political threat.
· Sometimes, perhaps not very often during their lifetimes, volcanoes erupt and present a wholly different character.· He had avoided detection during the war, when for wholly different reasons he was murdered by the Saigon secret police.· That is a wholly different argument and it is therefore important to concentrate on it.· It requires a wholly different set of skills, based on ideas, people skills and values.· That is, they involve a second and wholly different relation, a semantic or intentional relation between themselves and whatever they represent.· The choir outing was wholly different.· Mr Ashcroft's case is wholly different.· They, however, have a wholly different outlook because of transubstantiation, which sounds like a disease but is a doctrine.
· That is, she is exempt from supervision but not wholly free to choose her own activities.· It is not that Western tradition has been wholly free of references to celestial phenomena.· It would be idle to pretend that the Trust is wholly free from some of these faults; few organisations are.· One would assume that she was wholly free to marry, but did not do so because...· It is also the meaning of the doctrine that he alone was perfect and wholly free from sin.· But this was to be a market that was not wholly free or spontaneous.
· Also the warning system was wholly inadequate.· The traditional shop class is wholly inadequate to prepare young people for this new world.· Council representatives immediately criticised the allocations as wholly inadequate.· All the obvious expressions of sympathy were wholly inadequate.· The time-consuming tasks of keeping families clean and fed were for the most part carried out with wholly inadequate equipment in depressing surroundings.· The fog bank was unattainable and rather than surrender, Kennedy opened fire against both vessels with his antique and wholly inadequate guns.
· The acts, implying possession in one case, may be wholly inappropriate to prove it in another.· Quite apart from questions of sample size and representativeness, this particular aggregation is wholly inappropriate.· Chief Inspector Davina Logan described the sentence as wholly inappropriate.· The same terms are used to describe very different products and some terms are wholly inappropriate.· Many of the burdensome covenants inserted in the former kind of lease will be wholly inappropriate to the latter.· One of these is the notion of detachment between professionals and clients which is wholly inappropriate in teaching.· For them the demand to draft or revise a long story would be wholly inappropriate.· One need hardly dwell on the catastrophic possibility of uttering a bantering remark only to discover it wholly inappropriate.
· It must be clearly recognised that compensation orders are otherwise wholly independent of that exercise.· The oxygen extraction process may then become wholly independent of resupply from Earth.· And the idiots had hooked the man's life support on to a wholly independent generator, the prison fail-safe.· Non-executive directors are not wholly independent.· The inquiry will be wholly independent.
· One has wholly new qualities involved.· Some adjust levels of existing taxes; some involve technical or administrative questions; a few may suggest wholly new forms of taxation.· Such an organization operates according to wholly new rules.· In truth the idea was not a wholly new one.· Pluto moves very fast, and often very quietly, opening a wholly new and elusive musical dimension.· Through mounting intervention to sustain a profitable economy, capitalist states are haphazardly establishing a wholly new arena of political confrontation.· We have so far discussed these themes as though we were constructing a wholly new kind of urban sociology.
· Its ownership relationships varied from a wholly owned territory to joint ventures to a partnership.· It decided to do this through the dock company, a wholly owned subsidiary which was incorporated on 24 March 1982.· Consent is not required of the shareholders of any company which is a wholly owned subsidiary.· Banque Worms, a wholly owned unit of Union des Assurances de Paris, will increase to 5 percent from 2 percent.
· Joan found the transition from sanctuary to Tower wholly satisfactory.· That could indicate a feeling that the ecumenical solution is not wholly satisfactory.· More importantly, I did not find the sections on taxonomy and evolution wholly satisfactory.· If the appointment is not wholly satisfactory, look at your notes and try and see where you made your mistakes.· And the Executive's recommendation is not by any means wholly satisfactory.· No doubt the missio, with its insistence on proving bad faith, had not been a wholly satisfactory remedy.· We may agree that this is not wholly satisfactory.· He failed to make a wholly satisfactory career.
· Such a philosophy is wholly unacceptable and shows how stupid the tax was.· This is an unscientific procedure that is widely practiced but must be condemned as wholly unacceptable.· By the by, those conditions are wholly unacceptable to our partners and would destroy the whole purpose and form of a central bank.· Through their wholly unacceptable behaviour, keoi mark themselves apart from humans, while reminding them of the possibility of such behaviour.
VERB· Despite its easy flow I was nevertheless not wholly convinced by No. 4.· But the City was not wholly convinced.· They had not seemed wholly convinced but had subsided with mutterings.
· Are there tasks in which children partly or wholly fail to understand the language which the teacher is using?
· The Styrofoam plant is now wholly owned by Dow.· In 1969, Lechmere merged with Dayton Corp., becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the giant Minneapolis-based retailer.· A wholly owned subsidiary is one in which the parent owns 100 percent of the voting stock of the subsidiary.· Many wholly owned subsidiaries are originally founded by the parent for some special purpose.· Pratt & Lambert is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Sherwin-Williams, a paint and varnish maker.· Monster Motorsports will remain a wholly owned subsidiary.
· In the case of the twins, the id seems wholly detached from the ego.· They seem wholly to belong to where they are.· To pretend that the 12 can beat out a constructive, flexible, foreign policy based on majority voting seems wholly unrealistic.· They had not seemed wholly convinced but had subsided with mutterings.· Coming from her tight mouth, the county trilling on local lawlessness and moral decline made these cankers seem wholly benign.
WORD FAMILYnounwholewholesomenessadjectivewholewholesome ≠ unwholesomeadverbwholly
completely: a wholly satisfactory solution The report claimed that the disaster was wholly unavoidable.