Holy means sacred or devoted to God — "they buried him in holy ground". Wholly means entirely or completely — "the delay was wholly avoidable". There is a third homophone too: holey, meaning full of holes, as in "a holey old jumper".
The core difference
These three spellings sound close enough to trip up fast typing, but they come from different words and never overlap in meaning. Holy is an adjective about the sacred. Wholly is an adverb built from whole, and means in full, with nothing left out. Holey is a plain descriptive adjective — perforated, worn through.
Using holy
- "Pilgrims have walked this holy road for centuries."
- "She kept the day holy and refused to work on it."
- "Holy water, holy orders, the Holy Land."
Using wholly
- "The report was wholly inadequate."
- "He is wholly responsible for the account."
- "A wholly owned subsidiary."
Wholly attaches to adjectives, verbs and participles, and it is a touch more formal than completely. It is particularly common in legal and business phrasing — wholly owned, wholly without merit.
The test you can run
Swap in completely. If the sentence still works — "the delay was completely avoidable" — you want wholly, with the w. If instead you could swap in sacred, you want holy. If you could swap in full of holes, you want holey.
Spelling it correctly
The w is the signal that the word comes from whole: no w, no wholeness. But do not assume the rest of whole survives intact — it does not. English drops the silent e before -ly here, so the spelling is whol + ly = wholly, with two ls and no e in the middle. Wholely is the commonest misspelling of the word and it is not standard. Picture the two ls meeting where the e used to be.
Pronunciation and the common mistake
Most speakers pronounce holy and wholly slightly differently — wholly often carries a doubled l sound, HOLE-lee, against HOH-lee for holy — but plenty of speakers merge them entirely, which is why the spellings get swapped in writing.
The mistake that slips past spellcheckers is "holy owned" or "holy unnecessary", since holy is a real word. Nothing flags it; only re-reading will. The same is true in reverse for exclamations: it is holy smoke and holy cow, never wholly.
One genuine overlap worth knowing: wholly and holy can sit side by side in religious writing without conflict — "a life wholly given to holy work" — and that is the sentence where careful proofreading pays off.
And holey
Holey is rarer and often gets rewritten as "full of holes" to avoid the confusion. It is still standard: "holey cheese", "his holey trainers". Do not drop the e — holy socks means something rather different.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "wholly owned" or "holy owned"?
Wholly owned. It means owned in full by a single parent company, with no minority shareholders — the standard phrase is "a wholly owned subsidiary".
Is it "holy moly" or "wholly moly"?
Holy moly. It is an exclamation in the same family as "holy smoke", so it takes the sacred spelling; "wholly" would make no sense there.
How do I spell socks with holes in them?
Holey socks, with the e. Holy socks would be sacred ones, and the joke is old enough that people will assume you made the mistake on purpose.