whole
‘the whole of’ and ‘whole’
When you talk about the whole of something, you mean all of it.
We were there for the whole of July.
I felt pain throughout the whole of my body.
Instead of using the whole of in front of a noun phrase beginning with the, you can simply use whole after the. For example, instead of saying ‘The whole of the house was on fire’, you can say ‘The whole house was on fire’.
I spent the whole day in the library.
They're the best team in the whole world.
You can use whole in a similar way after this, that, or a possessive.
I just want to say how sorry I am about this whole business.
I've never seen anything like this in my whole life.
You use whole after a to emphasize that you mean all of something of a particular kind.
We worked on the project for a whole year.
I drank a whole pot of coffee, and I still felt tired.
You can also use whole like this in front of the plural form of a noun.
There were whole paragraphs in the article that I didn't understand.
Be careful
In front of plurals, whole does not have the same meaning as all. If you say ‘All the buildings have been destroyed’, you mean that every building has been destroyed. If you say ‘Whole buildings have been destroyed’, you mean that some buildings have been destroyed completely.
In front of plurals, whole does not have the same meaning as all. If you say ‘All the buildings have been destroyed’, you mean that every building has been destroyed. If you say ‘Whole buildings have been destroyed’, you mean that some buildings have been destroyed completely.
‘as a whole’
You use as a whole after a noun to emphasize that you are talking about all of something and regarding it as a single unit.
Is this true just of some classes, or of the school as a whole?
In the country as a whole, average house prices went up by 19%.
‘on the whole’
You add on the whole to a statement to show that what you are saying is true in general but may not be true in every case.
I didn't enjoy the food because on the whole I don't really like fish.
On the whole it's not a good idea to ask him questions.