wholesome

Meaning

Adjective

• Promoting good physical health and well-being.
• Promoting moral and mental well-being.
• Favourable to morals, religion or prosperity; sensible; conducive to good; salutary; promoting virtue or being virtuous.
• Marked by wholeness; sound and healthy.
• Decent, innocuous, sweet.

Related

Similar words

• healthy, healthful, salubrious

Opposite words

• unwholesome

Origin

• From earlier holesome, from Middle English holsom, holsum, helsum, halsum, from Old English *hālsum, *hǣlsum, from Proto-Germanic *hailasamaz, equivalent to whole + -some. Cognate with Dutch heilzaam, Icelandic heilsamur, Norwegian Nynorsk helsesam, Swedish hälsosam ("wholesome").