From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe whole of somethingthe whole of somethingALL/EVERYTHINGall of something, especially something that is not a physical object The whole of the morning was wasted trying to find the documents. → whole
Examples from the Corpus
the whole of something• The religious movement of the late 1500s affected the whole of Europe.• One spark and the whole of your week's washing could start a conflagration.• I enjoyed the whole of the Chuck Berry interview - I only wish we'd had longer.• In essence, the whole of Fellini can be found in this sequence from La strada.• In the whole of 1995, imports accounted for 58 % compared with 57 % in 1994.• Individuality is an important thing to me, but the sum is the whole of its parts.• That is, the whole of its nature or reality is at least adequately given by this description.• But the negative motive is not the whole of it.• I personally think we can't hang on to the whole of Jerusalem. 