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“Holy” or “Wholly”

holy / wholly are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

holy hh·OW·l·iy

  • adjectivebelonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power.

wholly hh·OW·l·iy

  • adverbto a complete degree or to the full or entire extent (`whole' is often used informally for `wholly').
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“holy”

  • At that time, the Holy Roman Empire expanded northwards and…
  • …of the Invention of the Holy Cross, was built and the…
  • …fief been part of the Holy Roman Empire, and was eventually…
  • …which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, to Denmark proper…
  • …their legally different affiliation as Holy Roman and Danish fiefs.
  • …first a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, originating in the…
  • …Duke of Holstein within the Holy Roman Empire.
  • …completely to either Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire, or been virtually…
  • …Holstein (a fief of the Holy Roman Empire) and of Schleswig…
  • …or Bavaria had to the Holy Roman Emperor.

“wholly”

  • …and subsequently Mecel became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delphi.
  • …Chapple added that it was "wholly and utterly unacceptable to promote…
  • …if the player's forces are wholly incapacitated or killed, the squad's…
  • …string of development programmes aimed wholly or in part at Isan.
  • The company is wholly independent and is run entirely…
  • …since 1964 by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo.
  • …to Parliament it was a wholly independent body.
  • The company opened a wholly owned sales branch in Malaysia…
  • The intervals allowed appeared wholly inadequate, particularly for a powerful…
  • …deals with a Manhattan subculture wholly devoid of ethics or morality,…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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