on the whole

1. 1.

   with everything considered (and neglecting details)

   “altogether, I'm sorry it happened”

   “all in all, it's not so bad”

   Synonymsall in allaltogethertout ensemble

Questions about on the whole

What does on the whole mean?

on the whole means "with everything considered (and neglecting details)".

What is another word for on the whole?

Close synonyms include all in all, altogether, tout ensemble. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is on the whole a common word?

on the whole is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.