Entirety
nounThe whole of something; the complete or total extent of a thing.
How to spell entirety
8 letters · 4 syllables
How to pronounce entirety
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does entirety mean?
- nounThe whole of something; the complete or total extent of a thing.
Entirety in a sentence
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The committee reviewed the report in its entirety.
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She read the contract in its entirety before signing.
Where does entirety come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word descends from the Latin integer, meaning 'whole' or 'untouched', built from in- ('not') and the root tangere ('to touch'), so the literal idea was something that had not been touched or broken into. That sense passed into Old French as entier ('whole, complete'), and the abstract noun entiereté developed alongside it to name the quality of being whole. English borrowed the noun in the fourteenth century, originally spelled in forms like entierte, and over time it settled into the modern entirety. The same integer root gives us 'integer' in mathematics and 'integrity' meaning soundness or wholeness, so the family idea of unbroken completeness runs through all three. The spelling trap lies in the middle: writers often want to insert an extra letter or echo the -ire of 'entire', but the noun keeps a plain -ety ending after the t.
How the word is built
- entire (whole, complete)
- -ty (noun suffix forming abstract nouns)
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