• 3-minute read
• 12th February 2019

Word Choice: Hole vs. Whole

The words ‘hole’ and ‘whole’ sound the same. However, one of them is spelled with a ‘w’ at the start. And to make matters worse, these words have very different meanings. As such, you should check out our guide to what these terms mean to make sure your work is always error free.

Hole (Gap or Hollow)

‘Hole’ is most often a noun that refers to a gap or empty space of some kind. This could be an empty space that goes straight through something or simply a hollow in a surface. For instance:

Polo Mints have a hole in the middle.

I’ve dug a hole in the ground and filled it with Polo Mints.

A rarer use of ‘hole’ is as a verb meaning ‘make a hole in something:

HMS Pathfinder sank after being holed by a torpedo.

As in the example above, the verb sense of ‘hole’ usually refers to damaging a ship or boat. However, this is a rare usage.

Whole (Entire or Unbroken)

As an adjective, the word ‘whole’ typically means ‘entire’ or ‘unbroken’:

I ate the whole cake.

The snake swallowed its prey whole.

Here, we see ‘whole’ used to modify the nouns ‘cake’ (i.e. an entire cake) and ‘prey’ (i.e. the prey was swallowed in one piece). But ‘whole’ can also be a noun meaning ‘the entirety of something’:

The chapters in a book should together form a coherent whole.

This will affect the whole of humanity.

In all cases, though, the word ‘whole’ will refer to something as being entire or undivided. And in case you were wondering, the silent ‘w’ at the start of ‘whole’ may have origins in a fifteenth-century dialect pronunciation of the word where it would not have been silent. Quite why we’ve kept the ‘w’ even though we no longer pronounce it is another question entirely.

Summary: Hole or Whole?

The silent ‘w’ in ‘whole’ makes it easy to confuse this word with ‘hole’. However, these terms have very different meanings. As such, you need to know how they’re used so you can avoid errors in your writing:

• Hole is a noun that refers to a gap, empty space or hollow.
• Whole is usually an adjective that means ‘entire’ or ‘unbroken’.

Keep in mind, too, that most spellcheckers won’t tell you if you have missed the ‘w’ from ‘whole’, since they don’t recognise ‘hole’ as an error. And this makes thorough proofreading vital.