Library / English Dictionary |
WORLD
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
All of the living human inhabitants of the earth
Example:
she always used 'humankind' because 'mankind' seemed to slight the women
Synonyms:
human beings; human race; humanity; humankind; humans; man; mankind; world
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)
homo; human; human being; man (any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae characterized by superior intelligence, articulate speech, and erect carriage)
Meronyms (members of "world"):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife
Example:
they consider the church to be independent of the world
Synonyms:
earth; earthly concern; world; worldly concern
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
concern (something that interests you because it is important or affects you)
Derivation:
worldly (characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world)
Sense 3
Meaning:
All of your experiences that determine how things appear to you
Example:
for them demons were as much a part of reality as trees were
Synonyms:
reality; world
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
experience (the content of direct observation or participation in an event)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "world"):
real life; real world (the practical world as opposed to the academic world)
Sense 4
Meaning:
People in general; especially a distinctive group of people with some shared interest
Example:
the Western world
Synonyms:
domain; world
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "world"):
academe; academia (the academic world)
Grub Street (the world of literary hacks)
Sense 5
Meaning:
People in general considered as a whole
Example:
he is a hero in the eyes of the public
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)
Meronyms (members of "world"):
audience (the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "world"):
admass (the segment of the public that is easily influenced by mass media (chiefly British))
Sense 6
Meaning:
The 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on
Example:
he sailed around the world
Synonyms:
earth; globe; world
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Instance hypernyms:
terrestrial planet (a planet having a compact rocky surface like the Earth's; the four innermost planets in the solar system)
Holonyms ("world" is a member of...):
solar system (the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Everything that exists anywhere
Example:
the biggest tree in existence
Synonyms:
cosmos; creation; existence; macrocosm; universe; world
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
natural object (an object occurring naturally; not made by man)
Meronyms (parts of "world"):
celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)
estraterrestrial body; extraterrestrial object (a natural object existing outside the earth and outside the earth's atmosphere)
Meronyms (members of "world"):
extragalactic nebula; galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "world"):
closed universe ((cosmology) a universe that is spatially closed and in which there is sufficient matter to halt the expansion that began with the big bang; the visible matter is only 10 percent of the matter required for closure but there may be large amounts of dark matter)
natural order (the physical universe considered as an orderly system subject to natural (not human or supernatural) laws)
nature (the natural physical world including plants and animals and landscapes etc.)
Sense 8
Meaning:
A part of the earth that can be considered separately
Example:
the world of insects
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("world" is a kind of...):
part; piece (a portion of a natural object)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Involving the entire earth; not limited or provincial in scope
Example:
of worldwide significance
Synonyms:
global; planetary; world; world-wide; worldwide
Classified under:
Similar:
international (concerning or belonging to all or at least two or more nations)
Context examples:
Again his gaze completed the circle of the world about him.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
When one lives in the world, a man or woman's marrying for money is too common to strike one as it ought.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
What had been the study and desire of the wisest men since the creation of the world was now within my grasp.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Don't you think he's the dearest old man in the world?
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
If America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeed.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Has the patient lost interest in the world around him/her?
(NPI - Lost Interest in the World Around Him/Her, NCI Thesaurus)
"Where in the world did you come from?"
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
I assure you, if it had not been to meet you, I would not have come away from it for all the world.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
‘Where in the world have you been, Effie?’ I asked as she entered.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)