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How to pronounce whole

Whole is pronounced HOHL, with one syllable, exactly like hole. The w is silent. American and British English say it the same way, except for a slightly different vowel.

Say it yourself
  • 1 syllable
  • Stress on HOHL
  • Sounds like hole
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

whole

One syllable

adjective · all of something; complete

  1. HOHLhoʊl (stressed)
  • US /hoʊl/HOHL Recorded voice
  • UK /həʊl/HOHL Your device’s voice

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Whole, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

US American English/hoʊl/

  1. HOHLstressed

    • /h/as in hat
    • /oʊ/as in go (US)
    • /l/as in leg

UK British English/həʊl/

  1. HOHLstressed

    • /h/as in hat
    • /əʊ/as in go (UK)
    • /l/as in leg

Say whole yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes whole, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. The w is silent. Say HOHL, exactly like hole.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

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whole

    Common whole pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say HOHL.

    • NotWOHL

      Saying the w. The word starts with h, with a soft breath.

    • NotHOOL

      Reading o as in food. It is the oh of go.

    • NotHAWL

      Using the vowel of all. The vowel is the oh of go.

    Whole in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • We stayed there for the whole summer.

    • She told me the whole story.

    • I read the whole book in one night.

    Why is the w in whole silent?

    The w was never part of the sound. The word comes from Old English hal, meaning healthy or unhurt, which is also the root of heal, health and holy. It began with h and had no w.

    Around the year 1400 people began to write it with wh-. Some southwestern English speakers said a w before an o sound, and writers copied that in the spelling. The extra w stayed, but the speech returned to a plain h.

    So whole is a homophone of hole. When you meet the pair in a sentence, the meaning tells you which one is meant. Start with a breath, then the oh vowel, then the l.

    Words that sound like whole

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words with silent letters

    All 170 difficult words

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