You use entire when you want to emphasize that you are referring to the whole of something, for example, the whole of a place, time, or population.
[emphasis]
He had spent his entire life in China as a doctor.
There are only 60 swimming pools in the entire country.
The entire family was staring at him, waiting for him to speak.
I cried the entire three weeks; I never stopped.
The entire world must take notice of something like this.
Synonyms: continuous, unified, unbroken, uninterrupted More Synonyms of entire
More Synonyms of entire
entire in British English
(ɪnˈtaɪə)
adjective
1. (prenominal)
whole; complete
the entire project is going well
2. (prenominal)
without reservation or exception; total
you have my entire support
3.
not broken or damaged; intact
4.
consisting of a single piece or section; undivided; continuous
5.
(of leaves, petals, etc) having a smooth margin not broken up into teeth or lobes
6.
not castrated
an entire horse
7. obsolete
of one substance or kind; unmixed; pure
noun
8. a less common word for entirety
9.
an uncastrated horse
10. on entire
Derived forms
entireness (enˈtireness)
noun
Word origin
C14: from Old French entier, from Latin integer whole, from in-1 + tangere to touch
entire in American English
(ɛnˈtaɪr; ɪnˈtaɪr)
adjective
1.
a.
not lacking any of the parts; whole
b.
complete; thorough; absolute
entire confidence
2.
unbroken; intact
3.
being wholly of one piece; undivided; continuous
4.
not castrated
5. Obsolete
not mixed or alloyed; pure
6. Botany
having an unbroken margin, without notches or indentations, as some leaves
noun
7. Rare
the whole; entirety
8.
a stallion
SIMILAR WORDS: comˈplete
Derived forms
entireness (enˈtireness)
noun
Word origin
ME enter < OFr entier < L integer, whole, untouched, undiminished: see integer
Examples of 'entire' in a sentence
entire
What followed was one of the worst moments of my entire life.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
This past week has honestly been one of the most exciting of my entire career.
The Sun (2017)
Investors have stepped forward keen to buy the entire project.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
Today you can buy income funds that cover the entire world.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
This was the first love of my entire life.
The Sun (2016)
It was particularly hard to take because my entire international career had been a battle for me.
The Sun (2016)
But above all, he needs to deliver a dramatic and lasting shake-up of the entire political system.
The Sun (2016)
This is something that has troubled me for my entire adult life.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The complexity here is that it seems to extend to the entire family.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
His entire career has been about trying to prove people wrong.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
This is a man who has taken on the responsibility of rebuilding his entire country.
The Sun (2012)
The entire transport system in the southern counties had collapsed.
The Sun (2009)
The entire world is focused on to a needle point.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Nobody in the whole entire world loves me as much as my dogs.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
It spreads undetected like radiation through entire populations.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
They are so stuck in grief and it means their entire life is based in trauma.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
My entire family was involved in the partisan movement.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
He has an entire career to refine and revise.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
The entire country was like one gigantic trailer park.
Christianity Today (2000)
The entire global financial system is based on the issuance of sovereign debt.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
My story was so boring they had to cancel the entire project.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
For more than two hours these two teams had the entire world watching in awe and wonder.
The Sun (2014)
But is this reasonable to expect for the entire population?
Kowalski, Robert E The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure (1990)
But the most important thing is that he totally blends in with the entire extended family.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
An attempt to steal an entire country evidently did.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
He refused to listen and threw the entire system into chaos.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
It therefore enables you to inspect the entire distribution of project outcomes.
Charles A. D'Ambrosio & Stewart D. Hodges & Richard Brealey & Stewart Myers Principles of Corporate Finance (1991)
He considered this'the biggest disappointment of my entire career.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
It's an entire world that has collapsed around her.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Each possesses it whole, entire and undivided, and all together not more than one alone.
Zindell, David The Broken God (1993)
In other languages
entire
British English: entire /ɪnˈtaɪə/ ADJECTIVE
You use entire when you want to emphasize that you are referring to the whole of something.
He spent his entire life in China working as a doctor.
American English: entire
Arabic: كَامِل
Brazilian Portuguese: inteiro
Chinese: 全部的
Croatian: čitav
Czech: celý
Danish: hel
Dutch: volledig
European Spanish: entero
Finnish: koko kaikki
French: entier
German: ganz
Greek: ολόκληρος
Italian: intero
Japanese: 全体の
Korean: 전체의
Norwegian: hel
Polish: całkowity
European Portuguese: inteiro
Romanian: întreg
Russian: целый
Latin American Spanish: entero
Swedish: fullständig
Thai: ทั้งหมด
Turkish: bütün tamamı
Ukrainian: цілий
Vietnamese: toàn bộ
All related terms of 'entire'
on entire
a complete item consisting of an envelope , postcard , or wrapper with stamps affixed
entire body
Your body is all your physical parts, including your head, arms, and legs.
entire crew
The crew of a ship, an aircraft, or a spacecraft is the people who work on and operate it.
entire budget
Your budget is the amount of money that you have available to spend. The budget for something is the amount of money that a person, organization, or country has available to spend on it.
entire fleet
A fleet of vehicles is a group of them, especially when they all belong to a particular organization or business, or when they are all going somewhere together.
entire floor
A floor of a building is all the rooms that are on a particular level.
entire nation
The nation is sometimes used to refer to all the people who live in a particular country.
entire output
Output is used to refer to the amount of something that a person or thing produces.
entire squad
A squad is a group of players from which a sports team will be chosen .
entire campaign
A campaign is a planned set of activities that people carry out over a period of time in order to achieve something such as social or political change.
entire contents
The contents of a container such as a bottle , box, or room are the things that are inside it.
entire history
You can refer to the events of the past as history . You can also refer to the past events which concern a particular topic or place as its history.
entire industry
A particular industry consists of all the people and activities involved in making a particular product or providing a particular service.
entire network
A particular network is a system of things which are connected and which operate together. For example, a computer network consists of a number of computers that are part of the same system.
entire generation
A generation is all the people in a group or country who are of a similar age, especially when they are considered as having the same experiences or attitudes .
entire operation
An operation is a highly organized activity that involves many people doing different things.
entire population
The population of a country or area is all the people who live in it.
entire workforce
The workforce is the total number of people in a country or region who are physically able to do a job and are available for work.
Chinese translation of 'entire'
entire
(ɪnˈtaɪəʳ)
adj
整个(個)的 (zhěnggè de)
1 (adjective)
He had spent his entire life in China as a doctor.
Synonyms
continuous
Residents reported that they heard continuous gunfire.
unified
unbroken
The ruling party has governed the country for an unbroken thirty years.
uninterrupted
five years of rapid and uninterrupted growth
undivided
Adults rarely give the television their undivided attention.
2 (adjective)
Definition
made up of or involving all of something, including every detail, part, or aspect
Treatment is more effective if the entire family is involved.
Synonyms
whole
I have now read the whole book.
full
Repeat the layers until the terrine is full.
complete
the complete works of Shakespeare
total
The total cost of the project would be more than $240 million.
3 (adjective)
He assured me of his entire confidence in me.
Synonyms
absolute
A sick person needs to have absolute trust in a doctor.
full
total
utter
A look of utter confusion swept across his handsome face.
outright
He told me an outright lie.
thorough
I was a thorough little academic snob.
unqualified
The event was an unqualified success.
unrestricted
The Commissioner has unrestricted access to all the files.
undiminished
unmitigated
A senior police officer had called him an unmitigated liar.
unreserved
Charles displays unreserved admiration for his grandfather.
4 (adjective)
No document is entire, and it is often unclear in what order the pieces fit together.
Synonyms
intact
After the explosion, most of the cargo was left intact.
whole
I struck the glass with all my might, but it remained whole.
perfect
unmarked
unbroken
Against all odds her glasses remained unbroken after the explosion.
sound
His body was still sound.
unharmed
The car was a write-off, but everyone escaped unharmed.