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6 dictionary results for: World
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
world       [wurld] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.the earth or globe, considered as a planet.
2.(often initial capital letter) a particular division of the earth: the Western world.
3.the earth or a part of it, with its inhabitants, affairs, etc., during a particular period: the ancient world.
4.humankind; the human race; humanity: The world must eliminate war and poverty.
5.the public generally: The whole world knows it.
6.the class of persons devoted to the affairs, interests, or pursuits of this life: The world worships success.
7.a particular class of people, with common interests, aims, etc.: the fashionable world.
8.any sphere, realm, or domain, with all pertaining to it: a child's world; the world of dreams; the insect world.
9.everything that exists; the universe; the macrocosm.
10.any complex whole conceived as resembling the universe: the world of the microcosm.
11.one of the three general groupings of physical nature: animal world; mineral world; vegetable world.
12.any period, state, or sphere of existence: this world; the world to come.
13.Often, worlds. a great deal: That vacation was worlds of fun.
14.any indefinitely great expanse.
15.any heavenly body: the starry worlds.
—Idioms
16.bring into the world,
a.to give birth to; bear: My grandmother brought nine children into the world.
b.to deliver (a baby): the doctor brought many children into the world.
17.come into the world, to be born: Her first child came into the world in June.
18.for all the world,
a.for any consideration, however great: She wouldn't come to visit us for all the world.
b.in every respect; precisely: You look for all the world like my Aunt Mary.
19.in the world,
a.at all; ever: I never in the world would have believed such an obvious lie.
b.from among all possibilities: Where in the world did you find that hat?
20.on top of the world. top1 (def. 46).
21.out of this or the world, exceptional; fine: The chef prepared a roast duck that was out of this world.
22.set the world on fire, to achieve great fame and success: He didn't seem to be the type to set the world on fire.
23.think the world of, to like or admire greatly: His coworkers think the world of him.
24.world without end, for all eternity; for always.
[Origin: bef. 900; ME; OE world, weorold; c. D wereld, G Welt, ON verǫld, all < Gmc *wer-ald- lit., age of man]

—Synonyms 1. See earth.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
world       (wûrld)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. The earth.
  2. The universe.
  3. The earth with its inhabitants.
  4. The inhabitants of the earth; the human race.
    1. Humankind considered as social beings; human society: turned her back on the world.
    2. People as a whole; the public: The event amazed the world.
    3. A sphere of human activity or interest: the world of sports.
    4. A class or group of people with common characteristics or pursuits: the scientific world.
    5. Human existence; life: brought a child into the world.
    6. A state of existence: the next world.
  6. often World A specified part of the earth: the Western World.
  7. A part of the earth and its inhabitants as known at a given period in history: the ancient world.
  8. A realm or domain: the animal world; the world of imagination.
    1. A sphere of human activity or interest: the world of sports.
    2. A class or group of people with common characteristics or pursuits: the scientific world.
    3. Human existence; life: brought a child into the world.
    4. A state of existence: the next world.
  10. A particular way of life: the world of the homeless.
  11. All that relates to or affects the life of a person: He saw his world collapse about him.
  12. Secular life and its concerns: a man of the world.
    1. Human existence; life: brought a child into the world.
    2. A state of existence: the next world.
  14. A large amount; much. Often used in the plural: did her a world of good; candidates that are worlds apart on foreign policy.
  15. A celestial body such as a planet: the possibility of life on other worlds.

adj.  
  1. Of or relating to the world: a world champion.
  2. Involving or extending throughout the entire world: a world crisis.


[Middle English, from Old English weorold; see wī-ro- in Indo-European roots.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
world 
O.E. woruld, worold "human existence, the affairs of life," also "the human race, mankind," a word peculiar to Gmc. languages (cf. O.S. werold, O.Fris. warld, Du. wereld, O.N. verold, O.H.G. weralt, Ger. Welt), with a literal sense of "age of man," from P.Gmc. *wer "man" (O.E. wer, still in werewolf; see virile) + *ald "age" (see old). Originally "life on earth, this world (as opposed to the afterlife)," sense extended to "the known world" (e.g. "Greatest Show on Earth"), then to "the physical world in the broadest sense, the universe" (c.1200). In O.E. gospels, the commonest word for "the physical world," was Middangeard (O.N. Midgard), lit. "the middle enclosure" (cf. yard), which is rooted in Gmc. cosmology. Gk. kosmos in its ecclesiastical sense of "world of people" sometimes was rendered in Goth. as manaseþs, lit. "seed of man." The usual O.N. word was heimr, lit. "abode" (see home). Words for "world" in some other I.E. languages derive from the root for "bottom, foundation" (cf. Ir. domun, O.C.S. duno, related to Eng. deep); the Lith. word is pasaulis, from pa- "under" + saule "sun." Original sense in world without end, translating L. sæcula sæculorum, and in worldly. L. sæculum can mean both "age" and "world," as can Gk. aion. Worldwide is from 1632. World power in the geopolitical sense first recorded 1900. World-class is attested from 1950, originally of Olympic athletes.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
world

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" [syn: global] 

noun
1. everything that exists anywhere; "they study the evolution of the universe"; "the biggest tree in existence" [syn: universe] 
2. people in general; especially a distinctive group of people with some shared interest; "the Western world" 
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" 
4. the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on; "the Earth moves around the sun"; "he sailed around the world" [syn: Earth] 
5. people in general considered as a whole; "he is a hero in the eyes of the public" [syn: populace] 
6. a part of the earth that can be considered separately; "the outdoor world"; "the world of insects" 
7. the concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife; "they consider the church to be independent of the world" [syn: worldly concern] 
8. all of the living human inhabitants of the earth; "all the world loves a lover"; "she always used 'humankind' because 'mankind' seemed to slight the women" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

world

In addition to the idioms beginning with world, also see all over the place (world); best of both worlds; bring into the world; come up (in the world); dead to the world; for all the world; go out (of the world); in one's own world; it's a small world; laugh and the world laughs with you; man of the world; move up (in the world); not for all the tea in china (for the world); on earth (in the world), what; on top of the world; out of this world; set the world on fire; think a lot (the world) of; third world; with the best will in the world.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

World

World\, n. [OE. world, werld, weorld, weoreld, AS. weorold, worold; akin to OS. werold, D. wereld, OHG. weralt, worolt, werolt, werlt, G. welt, Icel. ver["o]ld, Sw. verld, Dan. verden; properly, the age of man, lifetime, humanity; AS. wer a man + a word akin to E. old; cf. AS. yld lifetime, age, ylde men, humanity. Cf. Werewolf, Old.]

1. The earth and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the system of created things; existent creation; the universe.

The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. --Rom. 1. 20.

With desire to know, What nearer might concern him, how this world Of heaven and earth conspicuous first began. --Milton.

2. Any planet or heavenly body, especially when considered as inhabited, and as the scene of interests analogous with human interests; as, a plurality of worlds. "Lord of the worlds above." --I. Watts.

Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Star distant, but high-hand seemed other worlds. --Milton.

There may be other worlds, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their almighty Sovereign. --W. B. Sprague.

3. The earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the sum of human affairs and interests.

That forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe. --Milton.

4. In a more restricted sense, that part of the earth and its concerns which is known to any one, or contemplated by any one; a division of the globe, or of its inhabitants; human affairs as seen from a certain position, or from a given point of view; also, state of existence; scene of life and action; as, the Old World; the New World; the religious world; the Catholic world; the upper world; the future world; the heathen world.

One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my surety. --Shak.

Murmuring that now they must be put to make war beyond the world's end -- for so they counted Britain. --Milton.

5. The customs, practices, and interests of men; general affairs of life; human society; public affairs and occupations; as, a knowledge of the world.

Happy is she that from the world retires. --Waller.

If knowledge of the world makes man perfidious, May Juba ever live in ignorance. --Addison.

6. Individual experience of, or concern with, life; course of life; sum of the affairs which affect the individual; as, to begin the world with no property; to lose all, and begin the world anew.

7. The inhabitants of the earth; the human race; people in general; the public; mankind.

Since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it. --Shak.

Tell me, wench, how will the world repute me For undertaking so unstaid a journey? --Shak.

8. The earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven; concerns of this life as distinguished from those of the life to come; the present existence and its interests; hence, secular affairs; engrossment or absorption in the affairs of this life; worldly corruption; the ungodly or wicked part of mankind.

I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. --John xvii. 9.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. --1 John ii. 15, 16.

9. As an emblem of immensity, a great multitude or quantity; a large number. "A world of men." --Chapman. "A world of blossoms for the bee." --Bryant.

Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. --Shak.

A world of woes dispatched in little space. --Dryden.

All . . . in the world, all that exists; all that is possible; as, all the precaution in the world would not save him.

A world to see, a wonder to see; something admirable or surprising to see. [Obs.]

O, you are novices; 't is a world to see How tame, when men and women are alone, A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. --Shak.

For all the world. (a) Precisely; exactly. (b) For any consideration.

Seven wonders of the world. See in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.

To go to the world, to be married. [Obs.] "Thus goes every one to the world but I . . .; I may sit in a corner and cry heighho for a husband!" --Shak.

World's end, the end, or most distant part, of the world; the remotest regions.

World without end, eternally; forever; everlastingly; as if in a state of existence having no end.

Throughout all ages, world without end. --Eph. iii. 21.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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