entière

Entière is the feminine form of the French adjective entier, meaning whole or complete. It is used to describe feminine nouns to indicate that something is not partial, but rather in its entirety. For example, une pièce entière means a whole room, and la somme entière indicates the full amount. In general, the adjective follows the noun, but it can appear before the noun for emphasis in certain stylistic contexts.

Morphology and usage: the masculine counterpart is entier, the feminine form is entière, and the plural forms are entiers (masculine) and entières (feminine). When ent is used with numbers as a noun, the standard noun form is l’entier for “the integer,” as in les entiers naturels (natural numbers) and les entiers relatifs (integers). The feminine noun form entiére is uncommon and mostly encountered in phrases where an explicit feminine noun is described by the adjective (for example, une part entière, la vérité entière).

Etymology and related terms: entier derives from Latin integer, meaning whole or untouched, passing into Old French as entier and evolving into the modern forms entier and entière. Related words include entièrement, an adverb meaning completely or in its entirety, and en entier, a phrase meaning “as a whole” or “in full.”

See also: entier (numerical sense), entier naturel, entier relatif, entièrement, en entier.