AskDefine | Define world

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The Collaborative Dictionary

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.] [1913 Webster]
The earth and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the system of created things; existent creation; the universe. [1913 Webster] The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. --Rom.
20. [1913 Webster] With desire to know, What nearer might concern him, how this world Of heaven and earth conspicuous first began. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster] Amongst innumerable stars, that shone Star distant, but high-hand seemed other worlds. --Milton. [1913 Webster] There may be other worlds, where the inhabitants have never violated their allegiance to their almighty Sovereign. --W. B. Sprague. [1913 Webster]
The earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the sum of human affairs and interests. [1913 Webster] That forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster] One of the greatest in the Christian world Shall be my surety. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Murmuring that now they must be put to make war beyond the world's end -- for so they counted Britain. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
The customs, practices, and interests of men; general affairs of life; human society; public affairs and occupations; as, a knowledge of the world. [1913 Webster] Happy is she that from the world retires. --Waller. [1913 Webster] If knowledge of the world makes man perfidious, May Juba ever live in ignorance. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
The inhabitants of the earth; the human race; people in general; the public; mankind. [1913 Webster] Since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Tell me, wench, how will the world repute me For undertaking so unstaid a journey? --Shak. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster] I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. --John xvii.
[1913 Webster] 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,
[1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster] Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company. --Shak. [1913 Webster] A world of woes dispatched in little space. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 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.] [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] Throughout all ages, world without end. --Eph. iii.
[1913 Webster]

Word Net

world adj : 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, planetary, world(a), worldwide]

Noun

1 all of the inhabitants of the earth; "all the world loves a lover"; "she always used `humankind' because `mankind' seemed to slight the women" [syn: human race, humanity, humankind, human beings, humans, mankind, man]
2 everything that exists anywhere; "they study the evolution of the universe"; "the biggest tree in existence" [syn: universe, existence, creation, cosmos, macrocosm]
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" [syn: reality]
4 people in general; especially a distinctive group of people with some shared interest; "the Western world" [syn: domain]
5 the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet on which we live; "the Earth moves around the sun"; "he sailed around the world" [syn: Earth, globe]
6 the concerns of the world as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife; "they consider the church to be independent of the world" [syn: worldly concern, earthly concern, earth]
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" [syn: populace, public]

Moby Thesaurus

Africa, America, Antipodes, Asia, Asia Major, Asia Minor, Australasia, Copernican universe, Earth, East, Eastern Hemisphere, Einsteinian universe, Eurasia, Europe, Everyman, Far East, Gaea, Ge, John Doe, Levant, Middle East, Near East, New World, Newtonian universe, Occident, Oceania, Old World, Orient, Ptolemaic universe, Public, Tellus, Terra, West, Western Hemisphere, abundance, acres, all, all being, all creation, allness, bags, barrels, biosphere, body politic, bushel, citizenry, common man, commonwealth, community, community at large, continent, copiousness, cosmos, countlessness, created nature, created universe, creation, down under, eastland, estate, everybody, everyman, everyone, everything that is, everywoman, expanding universe, flood, folk, folks, general public, gentry, geography, geosphere, globe, landmass, load, macrocosm, macrocosmos, mass, megacosm, men, metagalaxy, mother earth, mountain, much, multitude, nation, nationality, nature, numerousness, ocean, oceans, omneity, peck, people, people in general, persons, plenitude, plenty, plenum, polity, populace, population, profusion, public, pulsating universe, quantities, quantity, sea, sidereal universe, society, spate, state, steady-state universe, sum of things, superabundance, superfluity, system, terra, terrestrial globe, the blue planet, the old country, this pendent world, tons, totality, totality of being, universe, vale, vale of tears, volume, whole wide world, wide world, world without end, worlds, you and me

English

Etymology

< woruld < *wer-ald, "age of man".

Pronunciation

Homophones

Noun

  1. (with the) Human life, existence in general.
    There will always be lovers, till the world’s end.
  2. (with the) The earth.
    People are dying of starvation all over the world.
  3. An inhabited planet.
    Our mission is to travel the galaxy and find new worlds.
  4. An individual or group perspective or social setting.
    In the world of boxing, good diet is all-important.

Quotations

  • 2007 September 27, Marc Rayman (interviewee), “NASA's Ion-Drive Asteroid Hunter Lifts Off”, NPR.org, National Public Radio, at npr.org
    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.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

human existence
  • Danish: menneskehed
  • Dutch: wereld
  • Finnish: maailma
  • French: monde
  • German: Weralt, Welt , Erde
  • Greek: κόσμος
  • Japanese: (, sekai)
  • Latvian: pasaule
  • Malay: alam, dunia
  • Polish: świat
  • Portuguese: mundo
  • Spanish: mundo
  • Swedish: värld
  • West Frisian: wrâld
the earth
inhabited planet
individual or group perspective or social setting
  • Czech: svět
  • Danish: verden
  • Finnish: maailma
  • Greek: κόσμος
  • Hungarian: világ
  • Japanese: (, -kai)
  • Latvian: pasaule
  • Malay: dunia
  • Polish: świat
  • Portuguese: mundo
  • Russian: мир (mir)
  • Swedish: värld
  • West Frisian: wrâldsje

See also

External links

The World is a proper noun for the planet Earth envisioned from an anthropocentric or human worldview, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience and history, or the 'human condition' in general. The world population is over 6.60 billion people.
In a metaphysical context, World may refer to everything that constitutes reality and the Universe: see World (philosophy).

Etymology

In English, world may be parsed as rooted in a compound of the obsolete words were, "man", and eld, "age"; thus, its etymology may be semantically rendered as "age or life of man".

Usage

'World' distinguishes the entire planet or population from any particular country or region: world affairs are those which pertain not just to one place but to the whole world, and world history is a field of history which examines events from a global (rather than a national or a regional) perspective. Earth, on the other hand, refers to the planet as a physical entity, and distinguishes it from other planets and physical objects.
World can also be used attributively, as an adjective, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as World community. See World (adjective).
By extension, a world may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited.
World, when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of human experience.

Earth

Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist. Scientific evidence indicates that the planet formed 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within a billion years. Since then, Earth's biosphere has significantly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of aerobic organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer which, together with Earth's magnetic field, blocks harmful radiation, permitting life on land.
Earth's outer surface is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of the surface is covered with salt-water oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water, necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planet's surface. Earth's interior remains active, with a thick layer of relatively solid mantle, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron inner core.
The earth consists of seven contenets they as follows: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia; the biggest of all is Asia.
Earth interacts with other objects in outer space, including the Sun and the Moon. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26 times it rotates about its axis. This length of time is a sidereal year, which is equal to 365.26 solar days. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4° away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solar days). Earth's only known natural satellite, the Moon, which began orbiting it about 4.53 billion years ago, provides ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt and gradually slows the planet's rotation. A cometary bombardment during the early history of the planet played a role in the formation of the oceans. Later, asteroid impacts caused significant changes to the surface environment.

Life

A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the biosphere on Earth. Properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information. They undergo metabolism, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, possibly, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations.

Humanity

Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens. Compared to other species, humans have a highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, language, and introspection. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tools than any other species. DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. Humans now inhabit every continent and low Earth orbit, with a total population of over 6.7 billion as of March 2008.
Like most primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are particularly adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families to nations. Social interactions between humans have established an extremely wide variety of traditions, rituals, ethics, values, social norms, and laws which form the basis of human society. Humans have a marked appreciation for beauty and aesthetics which, combined with the human desire for self-expression, has led to cultural innovations such as art, literature and music.
Humans are noted for their desire to understand and influence the world around them, seeking to explain and manipulate natural phenomena through science, philosophy, mythology and religion. This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills; humans are the only extant species known to build fires, cook their food, clothe themselves, and use numerous other technologies.

Development

A summary of world development:

See also

External links

References

world in Arabic: عالَم
world in Official Aramaic (700-300 BCE): ܥܠܡܐ (ܐܪܥܐ)
world in Aymara: Pacha
world in Min Nan: Sè-kài
world in Catalan: Món
world in Cebuano: Kalibotan
world in Czech: Svět
world in German: Welt
world in Dhivehi: ދުނިޔެ
world in Spanish: Mundo
world in Esperanto: Mondo
world in Basque: Mundu
world in Persian: جهان
world in French: Monde (univers)
world in Korean: 세계
world in Croatian: Svijet
world in Ido: Mondo
world in Interlingua (International Auxiliary Language Association): Mundo
world in Italian: Mondo
world in Kazakh: Дүние жүзі
world in Kurdish: Cîhan
world in Latvian: Pasaule
world in Japanese: 世界
world in Norwegian Nynorsk: Verd
world in Central Khmer: ពិភពលោក
world in Uzbek: Dunyo
world in Polish: Świat
world in Portuguese: Mundo
world in Quechua: Kay pacha
world in Albanian: Bota
world in Swati: Úmhlâba
world in Slovak: Svet
world in Slovenian: Svet
world in Swedish: Värld
world in Tagalog: Mundo
world in Vietnamese: Thế giới
world in Tajik: Ҷаҳон
world in Ukrainian: Світ
world in Urdu: دنیا
world in Volapük: Vol
world in Wolof: Àdduna
world in Yiddish: וועלט
world in Samogitian: Sviets
world in Chinese: 世界
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