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:
Emirati officials see the latest measures as part of a gradual escalation rather than a wholesale break with Tehran, the people familiar with the matter said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The view reflects strong written retail sales and a solid wholesale backlog, tempered by a cautious view of the wider economic outlook, Luebke said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Last week’s weak labor market data combined with this week’s subdued consumer and wholesale inflation data have prompted markets to trim U.S. rate-hike bets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Lower energy prices played a big role in these declines, but prices were also more muted for other wholesale goods.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
We walk to a door beside a wholesale suitcase store, he takes out a key, and we go up the stairs in the dark.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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
Consumers have faced sharply higher prices for goods and services this year as businesses deal with an unprecedented jump in wholesales prices.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 26, 2021
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
Narrow board walks extended out, passing here a house, and there a store at far intervals, portion was the vast wholesales and shopping district, to which the uninformed seeker for work usually drifted.
From Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
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
Equipment wholesaling and transportation logistics are service industries that saw big jumps in the April data, a sign that higher oil prices are transitioning into a “second-order effect,” Helfstein says.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
Jefferies also expects Sigma to make improvements in its wholesaling business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
By the 1930s, the Mayers had expanded into jewelry wholesaling and made more than 100 street clocks for customers in multiple states, said Mendez.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
Still, redevelopment pressures, driven by manufacturing and wholesaling interests and ultimately high-end development on the outskirts of the area, never went away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
It is also true that wholesaling education can never be made a success.
From The Evolution of Dodd by William Hawley Smith
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.
