Link Centre Dictionary

world

UK/wɜːld/ US/wɜɹld/ very common informal
noun (8) adjective (1)

noun

1.

all of the inhabitants of the earth

  • “all the world loves a lover”
  • “she always used”
  • “because”
  • “seemed to slight the women”
Synonyms
2.

everything that exists anywhere

  • “they study the evolution of the universe”
  • “the biggest tree in existence”
Synonyms
3.

all of your experiences that determine how things appear to you

  • “his world was shattered”
  • “we live in different worlds”
  • “for them demons were as much a part of reality as trees were”
Synonyms
4.

people in general; especially a distinctive group of people with some shared interest

  • “the Western world”
Synonyms
5.

the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet on which we live

  • “the Earth moves around the sun”
  • “he sailed around the world”
Synonyms
6.

the concerns of the world as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife

  • “they consider the church to be independent of the world”
Synonyms
7.

a part of the earth that can be considered separately

  • “the outdoor world”
  • “the world of insects”
8.

people in general considered as a whole

  • “he is a hero in the eyes of the public”
Synonyms

adjective

1.

involving the entire earth; not limited or provincial in scope

  • “global war”
  • “global monetary policy”
  • “neither national nor continental but planetary”
  • “a world crisis”
  • “of worldwide significance”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on
  • against the world
  • all over the world
  • 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
  • around the world
  • our earth
  • our moon
  • our sun
  • our universe

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.