noun
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the state of being entire or whole; completeness
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a thing, sum, amount, etc, that is entire; whole; total
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of entirety
1300–50; Middle English enter ( e ) te < Middle French entierete < Latin integritāt- (stem of integritās ). See integer, -ity
Explanation
The noun entirety describes something that is total or complete, like when you eat a pizza in its entirety, leaving not even one slice for other people. The noun entirety comes from the Latin word integritas, meaning “untouched” or “whole.” If a televised football game goes long, the announcers might say, "Your local news will air in its entirely after the game." That means the news will be its normal length, not shortened. If you did your assigned reading in its entirety, it means you completed it, reading every page, not just skipping around.
Vocabulary lists containing entirety
Obama on Race 2008
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Obama's health care law -- NYTimes
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Part 3 Vocabulary (Unit 3)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Who else would willingly tackle the most deeply contentious foods of the entirety of the Jewish diaspora?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Asked by the judge how he pleaded to the indictment against him, the 63-year-old responded, "I reject this document in its entirety."
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
That’s the premise behind the Slate series Blogging the Bible, in which David Plotz spent a year reading his religion’s founding text in its entirety and reflecting on what he learned.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2026
“The entirety of our focus is to get to this transaction and get through it. Without the players, that becomes very difficult,” he said last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
He would need a mirror to assess the entirety of the situation with his nose, but he was afraid that if he said as much, she’d go and rip one off the bathroom wall.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
In the same life, all the way through the balance of her teens and the entireties of her 20s and 30s, it figures she’s loath to use the word “retirement.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2022
Richard was one who would always deal with entireties, being capable of no divisions nor subtleties of praise or blame.
From Madelon A Novel by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
