wholesome
/ˈhəʊlsəm/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈhəʊlsəm/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈhōl-səm/ (ame, mw)
wholesome — adjective
- wholesomepositive
- more wholesomecomparative
- most wholesomesuperlative
1. describing food, activities, or things that have a positive effect on your body,
describing food, activities, or things that have a positive effect on your body, mind, or character — either by keeping you physically healthy or by giving you a warm, decent, family-friendly feeling rather than anything harmful, dark, or shameful.
Ayesha packed her son a wholesome lunch of brown rice, grilled chicken, and steamed broccoli.
collocation: a wholesome meal / lunch / breakfast
The Saturday market sells fresh, wholesome food grown by farmers from nearby villages.
collocation: fresh, wholesome food
Ryo's grandparents preferred wholesome family shows over the violent dramas on late-night television.
Camille spent a wholesome afternoon picking apples with her cousins in the orchard.
The little dog wagging his tail at every passerby was a wholesome sight after a long, stressful week.
- healthy
more common and neutral; focuses on physical well-being without the moral or emotional warmth that 'wholesome' carries
- nutritious
purely about food's nutritional value; lacks the moral or feel-good connotation
- virtuous
stronger and more formal; about moral goodness only, with no health meaning
- heartwarming
captures the 'pleasant, endearing' modern internet sense of 'wholesome' but doesn't extend to food or physical health
- unhealthy
direct opposite for the food/body sense
- harmful
broader opposite covering both physical and moral damage
- corrupting
specifically opposite to the moral sense — describes something that damages character
用法筆記
Subject is usually a noun describing food, an activity, a person's character, or a piece of entertainment — never an abstract idea like 'logic' or 'argument'. The food sense and the moral/feel-good sense often blur together in real use, which is why the word feels old-fashioned and warm rather than clinical.