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Gap vs Whole - What's the difference?

gap | whole |

As nouns the difference between gap and whole

is that gap is gap while whole is something complete, without any parts missing.

As an adjective whole is

entire.

As an adverb whole is

(colloquial) in entirety; entirely; wholly.

gap

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
  • An opening allowing passage or entrance.
  • An opening that implies a breach or defect.
  • A vacant space or time.
  • A hiatus.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.}}
  • A mountain or hill pass.
  • (label) A sheltered area of coast between two cliffs (mostly restricted to place names).
  • (label) The regions between the outfielders.
  • The shortfall between the amount the medical insurer will pay to the service provider and the scheduled fee for the item.
  • * 2008 , Eileen Willis, Louise Reynolds, Helen Keleher, Understanding the Australian Health Care System , page 5,
    • Under bulk billing the patient does not pay a gap , and the medical practitioner receives 85% of the scheduled fee.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Andrew Benson, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , passage=That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints, getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1995, author=Robert E. Knoll, chapter=A University on the Defensive 1920-1927
    • , title= Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska, page=70 , passage=When Charles Bessey suddenly died in 1916 at age seventy, he left a gap that was impossible to fill; and though his protégé. R. J. Pool, was a man of intelligence and character, he did not have Bessey’s authority.}}
  • (label) (usually written as "the gap") The disparity between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities with regard to life expectancy, education, health, etc.

    • Synonyms

    * (opening made by breaking or parting) break, hole, rip, split, tear, rift, chasm, fissure * (opening allowing passage or entrance) break, clearing, hole, opening * (opening that implies a breach or defect) space * (vacant space or time) window * (hiatus) hiatus * (mountain pass) col, neck, pass * (in baseball)

    Derived terms

    * gap-toothed * gap year

    Verb

    (gapp)
  • (label) To notch, as a sword or knife.
  • (label) To make an opening in; to breach.
  • (label) To check the size of a gap.

    • Anagrams

    * * * ----

    whole

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Entire.
  • :
  • *1661 , , The Life of the most learned, reverend and pious Dr. H. Hammond
  • *:During the whole' time of his abode in the university he generally spent thirteen hours of the day in study; by which assiduity besides an exact dispatch of the ' whole course of philosophy, he read over in a manner all classic authors that are extant
  • *
  • *:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
  • *, chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages.}}
  • Sound, uninjured, healthy.
  • :
  • *1939 , (Alfred Edward Housman), Additional Poems , X, lines 5-6
  • *:Here, with one balm for many fevers found, / Whole of an ancient evil, I sleep sound.
  • (lb) From which none of its constituents has been removed.
  • :

    • Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (colloquial) In entirety; entirely; wholly.
    • I ate a fish whole !

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something complete, without any parts missing.
  • An entirety.

    • Meronyms

    * part

    Derived terms

    * as a whole * go the whole hog * make whole * on the whole * out of whole cloth * the whole nine yards * whole shitting match * whole shooting match * whole ball of wax * whole-hearted * wholemeal * whole number * whole step * wholesome * whole-wheat

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * All and whole — Linguapress online English grammar