Definition of On the whole

1. Adverb. With everything considered (and neglecting details). "All in all, it's not so bad"

Exact synonyms: All In All, Altogether, Tout Ensemble

Definition of On the whole

1. Adverb. (context: focus idiomatic) For the most part; apart from some insignificant details. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of On The Whole

on the tip of one's tongue
on the toss of a coin
on the town
on the trot
on the turps
on the up
on the up-and-up
on the up and up
on the uptake
on the verge
on the wagon
on the wane
on the warpath
on the watch
on the way
on the whole (current term)
on the wing
on their own(p)
on thin ice
on tilt
on time
on tiptoe
on to
on top
on top of
on top of that
on top of the world
on tour
on tow
on track

Literary usage of On the whole

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann, Edward Aloysius Pace, Condé Bénoist Pallen, Thomas Joseph Shahan, John Joseph Wynne (1913)
"From this point a few The climate is on the whole dry and rainless for two- thirds of the year, during which time crops are possible only by means of ..."

2. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1918)
"The effect of the "prohibitory* movement on the whole grape industry and the 100000 persons directly dependent upon it can be inferred. ..."

3. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of King's Bench: With by Great Britain Court of King's Bench, Edward Hyde East, George Mifflin Wharton (1845)
"So that on the whole there appears to be no ground for fixing the defendant with a liability in this case. ..."

4. Science by American Association for the Advancement of Science (1888)
"on the whole, it appears that the south-western portions of the Mackenzie basin are far more productive than they were formerly believed to be, ..."

5. The Popular Science Monthly (1873)
"The outer end of the coil of one section forms the commencement of the first coil of the next section, and so on. The whole of the wire is therefore divided ..."

6. The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors by Charles Wells Moulton (1904)
"And this is what we understand to and, on the whole, rather tedious. It was be meant by the " Vision and the Faculty one of the successful poems of the day, ..."

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