/wɜːld/, /wɜɹld/, [wɝɫd]
- The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the reality we live in.
“In retrospect, the process of economic globalization has meant the end of the world as we knew it.”
“There will always be lovers, till the world’s end.”
“O wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! / O brave new world, / That has such people in 't.”
- The subjective human experience, regarded individually.
“The period immediately following my divorce seemed like the end of my world.”
“He was my world! [said of a slain companion]”
“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 ”
- metonymically, with-definite-articleA majority of people.
“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.”
- The Universe.
- with-definite-articleThe Earth, especially in a geopolitical or cultural context, or as the physical planet.
“People are dying of starvation all over the world.”
““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.”
“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”
- Any of several possible scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
“Who would want to live in a world like this?”
- countable(Several) alternative scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
“the best of all possible worlds. In the French original: le meilleur des mondes possibles. In German: die beste aller möglichen Welten.”
- countableA planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.
“Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds.”
“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?’”
“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?””
- broadly, countableAny other astronomical body which may be inhabitable, such as a natural satellite.
- A very large extent of country.
- In various mythologies, cosmologies, etc., one of a number of separate realms or regions having different characteristics and occupied by different types of inhabitants.
“Frey [...] clambered up on to the Hildskjalf, the throne from which Odin could see everything that happened across the nine worlds.”
- A fictional realm, such as a planet, containing one or multiple societies of beings, especially intelligent ones.
“the world of Narnia”
“the Wizarding World of Harry Potter”
“a zombie world”
- An individual or group perspective or social setting.
“In the world of boxing, good diet is all-important.”
“Welcome to my world.”
“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”
- The part of an operating system distributed with the kernel, consisting of the shell and other programs.
- A subdivision of a game, consisting of a series of stages or levels that usually share a similar environment or theme.
“Have you reached the boss at the end of the ice world?”
“There's a hidden warp to the next world down this pipe.”
- The twenty-second trump or major arcana card of the tarot.
- informalA great amount, a lot.
“Taking a break from work seems to have done her a world of good.”
“You're going to be in a world of trouble when your family finds out.”
“That new wallpaper has made worlds of difference downstairs.”
- archaicAge, era.
“Thy kingdom is a kingdom of al worldes: and thy domnion in al generation and generation.”
- transitiveTo consider or cause to be considered from a global perspective; to consider as a global whole, rather than making or focusing on national or other distinctions; compare globalize.
“There are by now many feminisms (Tong, 1989; Humm, 1992). [...] They are in shifting alliance or contest with postmodern critiques, which at times seem to threaten the very category 'women' and its po”
“In a sense, the dictatorship was a failure of failure and, on that account, it was perhaps the exemplary system of control. Having in 1933 wagered on the worlding of the world in the regime's failure,”
- transitiveTo make real; to make worldly.
- Earth: the Earth (our earth).
- The Universe: our universe.
- Existence.
- The Third World (the third world).
- The First World (the first world).
- The Second World (the second world).
- The Fourth World (the fourth world).
- The Industrialized World (the industrialized world).
- The Developed World (the developed world).
- The Developing World (the developing world).
Formsworlds(plural) · vurld(alternative) · worlds(present, singular, third-person) · worlding(participle, present) · worlded(participle, past) · worlded(past) · Worlds(plural)