What is "whole note"

Whole \Whole\, a. [OE. hole, hol, hal, hool, AS. h[=a]l well, sound, healthy; akin to OFries. & OS. h?l, D. heel, G. heil, Icel. heill, Sw. hel whole, Dan. heel, Goth. hails well, sound, OIr. c?l augury. Cf. Hale, Hail to greet, Heal to cure, Health, Holy.]

1. Containing the total amount, number, etc.; comprising all the parts; free from deficiency; all; total; entire; as, the whole earth; the whole solar system; the whole army; the whole nation. ``On their whole host I flew unarmed.''
   --Milton.

   The whole race of mankind.
   --Shak.

2. Complete; entire; not defective or imperfect; not broken or fractured; unimpaired; uninjured; integral; as, a whole orange; the egg is whole; the vessel is whole.

   My life is yet whole in me.
   --2 Sam. i. 9.

3. Possessing, or being in a state of, heath and soundness; healthy; sound; well.

   [She] findeth there her friends hole and sound.
   --Chaucer.

   They that be whole need not a physician.
   --Matt. ix. 12.

   When Sir Lancelot's deadly hurt was whole.
   --Tennyson.

   Whole blood. (Law of Descent) See under Blood, n., 2.

   Whole note (Mus.), the note which represents a note of longest duration in common use; a semibreve.

   Whole number (Math.), a number which is not a fraction or mixed number; an integer.

   Whole snipe (Zo["o]l.), the common snipe, as distinguished from the smaller jacksnipe. [Prov. Eng.]

   Syn: All; total; complete; entire; integral; undivided; uninjured; unimpaired; unbroken; healthy.

   Usage: Whole, Total, Entire, Complete. When we use the word whole, we refer to a thing as made up of parts, none of which are wanting; as, a whole week; a whole year; the whole creation. When we use the word total, we have reference to all as taken together, and forming a single totality; as, the total amount; the total income. When we speak of a thing as entire, we have no reference to parts at all, but regard the thing as an integer, i. e., continuous or unbroken; as, an entire year; entire prosperity. When we speak of a thing as complete, there is reference to some progress which results in a filling out to some end or object, or a perfected state with no deficiency; as, complete success; a complete victory.

   All the whole army stood agazed on him.
   --Shak.

   One entire and perfect chrysolite.
   --Shak.

   Lest total darkness should by night regain Her old possession, and extinguish life.
   --Milton.

   So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.
   --Milton.

n. (context music English) A semibreve, a musical note four beats long in 4/4 time.

n. a musical note having the longest time value (equal to four beats in common time) [syn: semibreve]

thumb|right|250px|Figure 1. A whole note and a whole rest.

In music, a whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note (or minim), and no note stem (see Figure 1). Its length is equal to four beats in 4/4 time, that is the whole 4/4 measure (or bar). Most other notes are fractions of the whole note; half notes are played for one half the duration of the whole note, quarter notes (or crotchets) are each played for one quarter the duration, etc.

A whole note lasts half as long as a double whole note (or breve—hence the British name, semibreve), and twice as long as a half note, or minim. The symbol is first found in music notation from the late thirteenth century .

A related symbol is the whole rest (or semibreve rest), which usually denotes a silence for the same duration. Whole rests are drawn as filled-in rectangles generally hanging under the second line from the top of a musical staff, though they may occasionally be put under a different line in more complicated passages, such as when two instruments or vocalists are written on one staff, and one is temporarily silent.