wholesale
Americannoun
-
wholesales
plural
adjective
-
of, relating to, or engaged in sale by wholesale.
-
extensive; broadly indiscriminate.
wholesale discharge of workers.
- Synonyms:
- promiscuous, undiscriminating, inclusive, thorough, comprehensive, far-reaching
adverb
-
in a wholesale way; on wholesale terms.
I can get it for you wholesale.
-
in large quantities; on a large scale, especially without discrimination.
Wild horses were slaughtered wholesale.
verb (used with or without object)
-
wholesales,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wholesaled,
past participle, past
-
wholesaling
present participle
noun
-
the business of selling goods to retailers in larger quantities than they are sold to final consumers but in smaller quantities than they are purchased from manufacturers Compare retail
-
-
in large quantities
-
at wholesale prices
-
adjective
-
of, relating to, or engaged in such business
-
made, done, etc, on a large scale or without discrimination
adverb
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wholesalesimple
-
wholesalessimple
-
have wholesaledperfect
-
has wholesaledperfect
-
am wholesalingprogressive
-
are wholesalingprogressive
-
is wholesalingprogressive
-
have been wholesalingperfect progressive
-
has been wholesalingperfect progressive
Past
-
wholesaledsimple
-
had wholesaledperfect
-
was wholesalingprogressive
-
were wholesalingprogressive
-
had been wholesalingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wholesale
1375–1425; late Middle English, from the phrase by hole sale in gross; see whole, sale
Explanation
Use the adjective wholesale to describe something that's done on a big, broad scale, like wholesale changes made by a new government that affect an entire country. It's pretty common to see the phrase "wholesale destruction," especially when historians are talking about the overwhelming effects of war or ecological disasters. When wholesale is a verb, it has a very different meaning — to sell things in bulk, usually to someone who is going to sell it again at a higher retail price. The earliest meaning of the word was "in large quantities," combining whole and sale into the phrase "by whole sale."
Vocabulary lists containing wholesale
The Things They Carried
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City of Bones
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"Simplexity" by Jeffrey Kluger
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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:
BT said the deal would provide "much needed and immediate reassurance" for TalkTalk's employees as well as its UK customers - both retail and wholesale.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
He said they opened a store on Fourth Street and Telegraph in Berkeley, then opened another, “then they opened a factory and started selling wholesale, and the business just took off.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
Those included hotels, restaurants, construction companies, manufacturers and wholesale businesses.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
Chief executive Ken Mackness said: "The events we saw earlier this year demonstrated how quickly international developments can affect wholesale energy markets."
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
What Miss Love did, she wrote every lady and schoolgirl in Cold Sassy about something special she’d found for her at the wholesale house.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
Production, exports and wholesales of passenger cars in China all hit fresh highs in November compared with the same month in prior years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
But inflation also has been brutal for many shops, services and other businesses, which are often caught between rising wholesales prices and wages and increasingly cost-conscious customers.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2022
To some extent, the board split reflected different levels of dependence on the imported supplies that Metropolitan wholesales to the Southland.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2018
But Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the giant Metropolitan Water District, which wholesales water to the six counties of that megalopolis, said there is enough to last the year, even without more rain.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 9, 2014
“It will contribute to your fastidious comfort when you come back here to sell your pearls at Tiffany’s or in Maiden Lane, or wherever it is that one wholesales his treasure-trove.”
From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Hugh Lundsford
That’s not the narrative being wholesaled by the financial press and investment pundits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2022
“In a normal situation, there’s some surplus that gets generated when you’re farming,” he said, explaining that the surplus would be wholesaled to other retailers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2021
He has brokered real estate deals in Florida, arranged bank loans in Venezuela, marketed industrial pumps in Thailand, wholesaled shoes in Panama, promoted a building-materials company to Mexican interests and advised transnational financial services firms.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 28, 2015
After that, I started a company that wholesaled mobile phones.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2011
Marketing: In our large apple-growing districts the crop is generally wholesaled, either in the orchard or subject to delivery at the railroad, generally in barrels.
From The Apple by Various
On is attempting a more calibrated approach, neither neglecting its shelf space in retail nor wholesaling so many shoes that prices are undermined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Margins for machinery and equipment wholesaling rose 3.5% month over month in April.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
"Services grew a little, with wholesaling, pubs and restaurants and IT companies all doing well, partially offset by falls in accountancy and business rental & leasing," she added.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2025
Born in 1852, Bruun began to collect coins as a boy in the 1850s and ’60s, years before he began to amass vast riches in the packing and wholesaling of butter.
From Seattle Times ● May 12, 2024
They called it railroading, high finance, banking, wholesaling, real estate, and such things, but the point was that they got it, while she got what was left,—twenty-two cents.
From Burning Daylight by Jack London
Definitions 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.
