Whole vs Entire
Whole
- less formal, a bit more common implies the wholeness of a single undivided object, not a collection of parts, not a sum of parts;
- not broken or damaged, intact: used with singular countable nouns e.g. a whole loaf of bread / a whole person / whole life (one’s life as a single unit);
- cannot be used with plural countable nouns or uncountable nouns.
Examples
- The lessor has leased the whole building.
- We’ve rented the whole of the 5th floor as we’re planning to take on more staff.
- This whole idea is crazy.
- She told the whole truth.
- We spent the whole / the entire / all day on the beach.
- Now that I’m back from my week-long vacation, I feel whole again.
- I ate the whole pie.
- The unemployment rate for the whole of Poland was 18%.
- You do not have to pay them a bonus for the whole of 2015.
Entire
- implies totality, completeness and means no part has been left out;
- used with singular countable nouns;
- cannot be used with plural countable nouns or with most uncountable nouns, is used with some uncountable noun meaning integrity of parts e.g. entire life (means all the parts: years, experiences) of a life.
The entirety of
The entirety of is very formal.
More Examples
- This entire idea is crazy.
- She told the entire truth.
- That teen prodigy can play the entire Beethoven corpus.
- I read the book in its entirety. (I read the entire/whole book.)
- He war affected an entire generation of young Americans.
- The fence runs along the entire length of the building.
- She has dedicated her entire life to helping others.
- He threw up after drinking an entire can of beer.
- He slept through the entire movie.
- One word spoken in anger may spoil an entire life.
- Knowledge is limited while imagination embraces the entire world.
- Most kinds of snakes can go an entire year without eating anything.
- It takes 12 bees their entire lifetime to make about 15 milliliters of honey.