world
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wûrld
ipa: /wɜːld/
ipa: /wɜɹld/
ipa: [wɝɫd]
ipa: /wɵːld/
ipa: [wɵːɯ̯d̥]
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ld
homophone: whirled (with both the wine–whine merger and fern–fir–fur merger)
homophone: whorled (with both mergers, Received Pronunciation only)
Forms: form: worlds
form: vurld
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-?
Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós
Proto-Germanic *weraz
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-
Proto-Indo-European *h₂életi
Proto-Germanic *alaną
Proto-Indo-European *-tis
Proto-Germanic *-þiz
Proto-Germanic *aldiz
Proto-Germanic *weraldiz
Proto-West Germanic *weraldi
Old English weorold
Middle English world
English world
From Middle English world, from Old English weorold (“world”), from Proto-West Germanic *weraldi, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz (“lifetime, human existence, world”, literally “age/era of man”), equivalent to wer (“man”) + eld (“age”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English mounde (“world”), from Old French monde, munde (“world”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots warld (“world”), North Frisian Wārel, wäält, wråål (“world”), Saterland Frisian Waareld (“world”), West Frisian wrâld (“world”), Afrikaans wêreld (“world”), Bavarian Wöd (“world”), Dutch wereld (“world”), German, Luxembourgish Welt (“world”), German Low German Wereld, Werld (“world”), Vilamovian wełt (“world”), Yiddish וועלט (velt, “world”), Danish verden (“world”), Elfdalian wärd (“world”), Faroese verð, verøld (“world”), Icelandic veröld (“world”), Norn vrildan (“the earth”), Norwegian Bokmål verd, verden (“(the) world”), Norwegian Nynorsk verd (“world”), Swedish värld (“world”).
Senses: examples: text: In retrospect, the process of economic globalization has meant the end of the world as we knew it.
text: There will always be lovers, till the world’s end.
text: O wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! / O brave new world, / That has such people in 't.
ref: 1610–1611, William Shakespeare, The Tempest:
text: (Huxley is quoting William Shakespeare's play The Tempest in this novel's title)
ref: 1931, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World:
text: So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?.
ref: 2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:
synonyms: World
qualifier: with "the" or a plural possessive pronoun
glosses: The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the reality we live in.
examples: text: The period immediately following my divorce seemed like the end of my world.
text: He was my world! [said of a slain companion]
text: The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed. As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.
ref: 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
text: Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 9, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
text: America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:
qualifier: with "the" or a singular possessive pronoun
glosses: The subjective human experience, regarded individually.
examples: text: Running after God is the only life worth living. Even though the world believes that living for God is boring, we believe that there is nothing more exciting.
glosses: A majority of people.
glosses: The Universe.
examples: text: People are dying of starvation all over the world.
text: “As the world turns, we know the bleakness of winter, the promise of spring, the fullness of summer and the harvest of autumn–the cycle of life is complete.” - quotation attributed to Irna Phillips.
text: Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close[…]above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
ref: 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:
text: She says the Third Pole is one of the world’s largest sources of fresh drinking water.
ref: 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns:
text: So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?.
ref: 2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:
synonyms: the earth
Earth
the globe
God's green earth
Sol III
the planet
glosses: The Earth, especially in a geopolitical or cultural context, or as the physical planet.
examples: text: Who would want to live in a world like this?
glosses: Any of several possible scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
raw_tags: with "a"
examples: text: the best of all possible worlds. In the French original: le meilleur des mondes possibles. In German: die beste aller möglichen Welten.
ref: 1710, Gottfried Leibniz, Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil):
glosses: (Several) alternative scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
examples: text: Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds.
text: A third is wroth: ‘Is this an hour […]
A time to sicken and to swoon,
⁠When Science reaches forth her arms
⁠To feel from world to world, and charms
Her secret from the latest moon?’
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 35:
text: And They said to Kib: “What are these things that move upon The Earth yet move not in circles like the Worlds, that regard like the Moon and yet they do not shine?”
ref: 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:
text: Yet every world should have at least one unclimbable mountain.
ref: 1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld, page 118:
text: I think many people think of asteroids as kind of little chips of rock. But the places that Dawn is going to really are more like worlds.
ref: 2007 September 27, Marc Rayman (interviewee), “NASA's Ion-Drive Asteroid Hunter Lifts Off”, National Public Radio
glosses: A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.
glosses: A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.
Any other astronomical body which may be inhabitable, such as a natural satellite.
examples: text: the New World
glosses: A very large extent of country.
examples: text: Frey [...] clambered up on to the Hildskjalf, the throne from which Odin could see everything that happened across the nine worlds.
ref: 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 182:
glosses: In various mythologies, cosmologies, etc., one of a number of separate realms or regions having different characteristics and occupied by different types of inhabitants.
examples: text: the world of Narnia
text: the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
text: a zombie world
glosses: A fictional realm, such as a planet, containing one or multiple societies of beings, especially intelligent ones.
examples: text: In the world of boxing, good diet is all-important.
text: Welcome to my world.
text: According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
synonyms: circle
glosses: An individual or group perspective or social setting.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: The part of an operating system distributed with the kernel, consisting of the shell and other programs.
examples: text: Have you reached the boss at the end of the ice world?
text: There's a hidden warp to the next world down this pipe.
topics: video-games
glosses: A subdivision of a game, consisting of a series of stages or levels that usually share a similar environment or theme.
topics: human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
tarot
glosses: The twenty-second trump or major arcana card of the tarot.
examples: text: Taking a break from work seems to have done her a world of good.
text: You're going to be in a world of trouble when your family finds out.
text: That new wallpaper has made worlds of difference downstairs.
text: This movie isn't even billed as a comedy, but it's worlds funnier than the comedy I saw last month.
text: to think the world of someone
text: to mean the world to someone
glosses: A great amount, a lot.
examples: text: Thy kingdom is a kingdom of al worldes: and thy domnion in al generation and generation.
ref: 1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Lavrence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Psalmes 144:13, page 257:
glosses: Age, era.
Hyponyms: First World
Fourth World
free world
Majority World
New World
Old World
Second World
Third World
umbworld
underworld
Derived terms: after-world
afterworld
against the world
a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on
all the world
all the world and his wife
all the world and Little Billing
an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
antiworld
aquaworld
around the world
art world
artworld
a world of
beforehand in the world
beforehand with the world
best of both worlds
Bidenworld
book world
braneworld
brave new world
carry the world before one
citizen of the world
Clintonworld
clown world
come into the world
coming into the world
conworld
counterworld
court of world opinion
cumber-world
cumberworld
cyberworld
dark world
dead to the world
dream world
dreamworld
dream-world
edge of the world
elseworld
end of the world
ends of the world
eWorld
e-world
external world
fantasy world
first world problem
first-world problem
follow someone to the ends of the world
for all the world
for all the world to see
for the world
for worlds
futureworld
gameworld
globe of the world
go to the ends of the world
half-world
have the world by the bag
have the world by the balls
have the world by the neck
have the world by the nuts
have the world by the tail
have the world by the tail on a downhill pull
have the world by the testicles
have the world on a string
hello world
hub world
hyperworld
in another world
in a world of hurt
in a world of one's own
in a world of pain
in a world of trouble
in one's own little world
in one's own world
interworld
in the world
in what world
inworld
in-world
it's a man's world
it's a small world
it takes all kinds to make a world
it takes all sorts to make a world
Jerry World
just-world fallacy
just-world hypothesis
leader of the free world
lost to the world
lost world
macroworld
make a noise in the world
make the world go around
make the world go round
make this world go around
make this world go round
man of the world
many-worlds interpretation
McWorld
mean the whole world to
mean the world to
mean world syndrome
merworld
microworld
money makes the world go around
mother world
move up in the world
multiworld
multi-world
naked as the day one entered the world
nanoworld
netherworld
nether world
new world order
next world
nonworld
not for the world
not have a care in the world
not long for the world
not long for this world
not the end of the world
Obamaworld
object world
ocean world
off-world
offworld
of the world
oldest profession in the world
old-world
on top of the world
open world
Otherworld
otherworld
other world
out of this world
outside world
outworld
overworld
parallel world
phenomenal world
playworld
possible world
primary world
promise the world
Proto-World
put the world to rights
real world
real-world
renounce the world
reworld
ringworld
RNA world
rock someone's world
Rooftop of the World
Russian world
secondary world
the world
set the world ablaze
set the world afire
set the world aflame
set the world alight
set the world on fire
set the world to rights
shot heard 'round the world
shot heard round the world
simworld
singleworld
small world
small-world network
small-world phenomenon
soundworld
spiritual world
spirit world
storyworld
subworld
sure as the world
the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world
the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
the whole world
the whole world and his dog
the world and his wife
the world is one's lobster
the world is one's oyster
the world is someone's oyster
the world is too much with someone
the world over
the world owes one a living
think the world of
think the world revolves around one
third-world
third world
thought-world
throneworld
too good for this world
transworld
Trumpworld
Turd World
turd world
turn one's world upside down
umbworld
underworld
watch the world burn
watch the world go by
waterworld
water world
way of the world
weight of the world
welcome to my world
western world
what a small world
what color is the sun in your world
what in the world
whole wide world
why in the world
window on the world
with the best will in the world
Wizarding World
woman of the world
wonder of the world
wonderworld
workers of the world, unite
world ash
world-ash
world beat
worldbeat
world-beater
world-beating
worldbound
worldbreaking
worldbuilder
worldbuilding
world-building
world building
world capital
world car
world champion
world-class
world clock
World Communion Sunday
world cup
world egg
world-ending
world ending
world-endingly
world English
worlder
world-famous
worldful
world fusion
world-historical
world-historically
world history
worldhood
worldhouse
worldie
worldish
world island
worldizing
worldkin
world language
world leader
worldless
worldlet
worldlike
world line
worldling
world literature
worldly
worldmaker
worldmaking
world map
worldmate
world model
world music
worldness
World Ocean
world of difference
World of Warcrack
world-old
world order
world peace
world phone
world picture
world policeman
world power
worldproof
world-read
world record
world religion
world-renowned
world riddle
worlds away
world's end
World's End
World Series
world-shaking
worldsheet
world song
world-soul
world soul
world state
world-system
world to come
world trade center
world tree
world view
world-view
worldview
worldvolume
world-war
world war
worldward
worldwards
World War I
World War II
world-wearied
world-weariness
world weary
world-weary
world-wide
worldwide
World Wide Web
worldwisdom
world-wise
worldwise
world without end
worldy
Wormworld
worst of both worlds
zombie world