Prefix · whole · complete
Means "whole" or "complete": hologram, holistic, holography, holocaust, Holocene.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
Holo- comes from the Greek holos, which means "whole", "complete" or "entire". It appears in science, technology and ways of thinking. The central idea is always the totality: seeing something complete and not just one of its parts.
Holo- appears in very different contexts. In physics, it is used for three-dimensional images that look complete. In health and wellness, it describes an approach that treats the person as a whole (mind, body and emotions) and not just the symptoms. Holistic has become a popular word in wellness, education and business, where it means looking at the whole picture.
Combines with Greek roots to express wholeness or completeness:
Pronunciation: /ˈhoʊ.loʊ/.
holo-/ˈhoʊ.loʊ/
Tap the button to hear how the prefix sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Holistic" (holo- = whole + -istic): treating the complete system rather than its individual parts. Used in medicine, education, and philosophy. "Wholesome" comes from Old English "hal" (healthy) and means healthy, virtuous, or morally uplifting. They share distant roots but mean very different things in context.
A trick to remember it
Think of a hologram, a complete 3D image: holo- = whole, entire. holistic, hologram.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
Why is it called a "hologram" and not simply a "3D image"?
The prefix holo- means "whole" or "complete": hologram, holistic, holography, holocaust, Holocene.
The prefix holo- is pronounced /ˈhoʊ.loʊ/. For example, "hologram".
"gram" becomes "hologram". It is a typical example of the holo- prefix.
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