: the sale of commodities in quantity usually for resale (as by a retail merchant)
1
: performed or existing on a large scale especially without discrimination
wholesale slaughter
2
: of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of commodities in quantity for resale
a wholesale grocer
: in a wholesale manner
wholesaled; wholesaling
: to sell (something) in quantity usually for resale
: to sell in quantity usually for resale
Examples of wholesale in a Sentence
Adjective
The crops originated from wholesale growers.
Is that price retail or wholesale?
Verb
The company wholesales clothing to boutiques in the area.
Recent Examples on the Web
Dan Rys, Billboard, 26 Mar. 2024
Listeners often donate at least $60 for a bag that costs about $5 wholesale.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024
By comparison, Toyota—often held up as an industry benchmark in productivity—has 370,000 people on payroll that together built and sold wholesale to dealers some 11.2 million vehicles.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2024
Yash's distinctive background in wine importation and wholesale seamlessly integrates with the culinary landscape, creating a harmonious experience that transcends the ordinary.
—Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 16 Jan. 2024
Bardales initially planned to open a retail store but determined wholesale was more immediately feasible.
—The Indianapolis Star, 5 Jan. 2024
Advertisement At the start of 2023, the commodity (or wholesale) price of natural gas soared to record levels across California and below-normal temperatures caused prices to soar to unprecedented levels.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2023
But a number of high-profile lawsuits brought by artists and stock art companies are vehemently contesting that argument, saying these AI models copied their content wholesale without permission.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 3 July 2023
Unlike the industrial sector, farmers are unable to set retail prices for their produce and have to sell their crops in bulk at wholesale after harvest, which drives down prices for them across the board.
—Siladitya Ray, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
Alicia Wallace, CNN, 5 Apr. 2024
Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, confronts these snubs with a wholesale refusal of genre.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Apr. 2024
The wholesale plunder started in the late-1960s, as soldiers and local gangs combed through the nation’s temples for statues, carvings and other objects of cultural significance to smuggle across the border to Thailand.
—Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Which wholesale club has the best rotisserie chicken? Costco.
—Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2024
Claude Lévi-Strauss, the great anthropologist, was relentless in his wholesale condemnation of the Western impact on Indigenous societies.
—William Deresiewicz, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2024
The annual inflation rate has bounced around north of 3% for months, the latest retail sales data came in soft, and wholesale prices took an unexpectedly higher leap.
—J.j. McCorvey, NBC News, 17 Mar. 2024
Obviously, this would not be wholesale terminations.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
Core wholesale prices rose 0.3%, down from a 0.5% jump the previous month.
—Christopher Rugaber, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024
Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2012
ByteStyle, the company’s code of values, preaches a culture that could have been lifted wholesale from Google or Amazon: diverse, inclusive, radically honest and transparent.
—Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022
Last year, the decades-old chemotherapy drug fludarabine could be purchased wholesale for $110.
—Tony Paquin and David Sanders, STAT, 14 Dec. 2022
Many of these scenes are lifted wholesale from her own life.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2022
Dealers would buy cars wholesale at set prices from automakers.
—Chris Isidore, CNN, 19 Feb. 2022
Neither Asket or Birdsong sell wholesale to avoid the pressure from retailers to produce new collections, and their pool of potential investors was narrowed down to those who share their purpose.
—Olivia Pinnock, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021
But there's one other matter to wrap up before moving wholesale into 2022: my prediction for the biggest gaming product to not last past the end of this new year.
—Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 6 Jan. 2022
But Trump’s wild-eyed notions about presidential power, while extreme, did not spring wholesale from his imagination.
—Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 18 Sep. 2021
CBS News, 16 Sep. 2023
Philadelphia’s licensing of residential real estate wholesalers has provided transparency into who is wholesaling, Dugan said.
—Anjeanette Damon, ProPublica, 2 Aug. 2023
Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps massive profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said.
—Christopher Sherman and Mark Stevenson, Chicago Tribune, 1 May 2023
That's one of the reasons Carnes has continued to wholesale her baked goods to local stores, such as Giant Leap in the Galleria area and Retrospect Coffee Bar, one of the few partners entrusted with selling her kolaches.
—Jennifer Stewart, Chron, 20 Apr. 2023
Ledoux is shelving a plan to wholesale its bouquets to stores like Target next year, which would have meant the addition of 30 employees.
—Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2022
The two approached companies including Diptyque and Santa Maria Novella, which declined to wholesale their products.
—New York Times, 9 Mar. 2022
He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and served in the infantry at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) before returning to Greensburg with an honorable discharge in 1955, joining the family retail and wholesaling businesses.
—Akeem Glaspie, Indianapolis Star, 6 May 2020
But on Wednesday, the ship nevertheless began disgorging passengers wholesale.
—New York Times, 10 Mar. 2020
Noun
At wholesale, overall revenue grew by 7%, up to $11 billion from last year’s $10.3 billion, marking the second straight year that metric crossed the $10 billion plateau.
—Dan Rys, Billboard, 26 Mar. 2024
Listeners often donate at least $60 for a bag that costs about $5 wholesale.
—Quartz Staff, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024
By comparison, Toyota—often held up as an industry benchmark in productivity—has 370,000 people on payroll that together built and sold wholesale to dealers some 11.2 million vehicles.
—Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 8 Feb. 2024
Yash's distinctive background in wine importation and wholesale seamlessly integrates with the culinary landscape, creating a harmonious experience that transcends the ordinary.
—Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 16 Jan. 2024
Bardales initially planned to open a retail store but determined wholesale was more immediately feasible.
—The Indianapolis Star, 5 Jan. 2024
Advertisement At the start of 2023, the commodity (or wholesale) price of natural gas soared to record levels across California and below-normal temperatures caused prices to soar to unprecedented levels.
—Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Oct. 2023
But a number of high-profile lawsuits brought by artists and stock art companies are vehemently contesting that argument, saying these AI models copied their content wholesale without permission.
—Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 3 July 2023
Unlike the industrial sector, farmers are unable to set retail prices for their produce and have to sell their crops in bulk at wholesale after harvest, which drives down prices for them across the board.
—Siladitya Ray, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
Adjective
The Fed will get critical pieces of data next week, when the latest Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index reports shine light on the trajectory of inflation at the retail and wholesale levels, respectively.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN, 5 Apr. 2024
Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, confronts these snubs with a wholesale refusal of genre.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Apr. 2024
The wholesale plunder started in the late-1960s, as soldiers and local gangs combed through the nation’s temples for statues, carvings and other objects of cultural significance to smuggle across the border to Thailand.
—Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Which wholesale club has the best rotisserie chicken? Costco.
—Kimberly Cataudella Tutuska, Miami Herald, 3 Apr. 2024
Claude Lévi-Strauss, the great anthropologist, was relentless in his wholesale condemnation of the Western impact on Indigenous societies.
—William Deresiewicz, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2024
The annual inflation rate has bounced around north of 3% for months, the latest retail sales data came in soft, and wholesale prices took an unexpectedly higher leap.
—J.j. McCorvey, NBC News, 17 Mar. 2024
Obviously, this would not be wholesale terminations.
—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
Core wholesale prices rose 0.3%, down from a 0.5% jump the previous month.
—Christopher Rugaber, Quartz, 14 Mar. 2024
Adverb
It got picked up wholesale from blog to blog and Tumblr to Tumblr so rapidly that the pedigree of it got lost.
—Phil Plait, Discover Magazine, 10 Aug. 2012
ByteStyle, the company’s code of values, preaches a culture that could have been lifted wholesale from Google or Amazon: diverse, inclusive, radically honest and transparent.
—Alex W. Palmer, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022
Last year, the decades-old chemotherapy drug fludarabine could be purchased wholesale for $110.
—Tony Paquin and David Sanders, STAT, 14 Dec. 2022
Many of these scenes are lifted wholesale from her own life.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2022
Dealers would buy cars wholesale at set prices from automakers.
—Chris Isidore, CNN, 19 Feb. 2022
Neither Asket or Birdsong sell wholesale to avoid the pressure from retailers to produce new collections, and their pool of potential investors was narrowed down to those who share their purpose.
—Olivia Pinnock, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021
But there's one other matter to wrap up before moving wholesale into 2022: my prediction for the biggest gaming product to not last past the end of this new year.
—Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 6 Jan. 2022
But Trump’s wild-eyed notions about presidential power, while extreme, did not spring wholesale from his imagination.
—Jason Linkins, The New Republic, 18 Sep. 2021
Verb
Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps immense profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said.
—CBS News, 16 Sep. 2023
Philadelphia’s licensing of residential real estate wholesalers has provided transparency into who is wholesaling, Dugan said.
—Anjeanette Damon, ProPublica, 2 Aug. 2023
Fentanyl is so cheap to make that the cartel reaps massive profits even wholesaling the drug at 50 cents per pill, prosecutors said.
—Christopher Sherman and Mark Stevenson, Chicago Tribune, 1 May 2023
That's one of the reasons Carnes has continued to wholesale her baked goods to local stores, such as Giant Leap in the Galleria area and Retrospect Coffee Bar, one of the few partners entrusted with selling her kolaches.
—Jennifer Stewart, Chron, 20 Apr. 2023
Ledoux is shelving a plan to wholesale its bouquets to stores like Target next year, which would have meant the addition of 30 employees.
—Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2022
The two approached companies including Diptyque and Santa Maria Novella, which declined to wholesale their products.
—New York Times, 9 Mar. 2022
He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and served in the infantry at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) before returning to Greensburg with an honorable discharge in 1955, joining the family retail and wholesaling businesses.
—Akeem Glaspie, Indianapolis Star, 6 May 2020
But on Wednesday, the ship nevertheless began disgorging passengers wholesale.
—New York Times, 10 Mar. 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wholesale.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
Noun
15th century, in the meaning defined above
Adjective
1607, in the meaning defined at sense 2
Adverb
1696, in the meaning defined above
Verb
1792, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
Time Traveler
The first known use of wholesale was
in the 15th century
Dictionary Entries Near wholesale
Cite this Entry
“Wholesale.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wholesale. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
wholesale
1 of 3 noun
whole·sale
ˈhōl-ˌsāl 
: the sale of goods in large quantity usually for resale (as by a store owner)
wholesale
2 of 3 adjective1
: of, relating to, or engaged in the sale of goods in quantity for resale
a wholesale grocer
wholesale prices
2
: done on a large scale : general
wholesale changes in the team's roster
wholesale
adverb
wholesale
3 of 3 verb
wholesaled; wholesaling
: to sell usually in large amounts for resale
wholesaler
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on wholesale
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for wholesale
Nglish: Translation of wholesale for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of wholesale for Arabic Speakers
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