world

world [-s, -'s] n

OE weorold < wer- + ald-, age, life of man.

1. Sphere created by God for man; place for humankind in contrast to heaven, the place for angels (see Jeremiah 10:12); [fig.] mortality; time between birth and death; [fig.] place characterized by sin, pain, and death as well as great pleasure; [fig.] separation between this life and the afterlife; [fig.] the cares, responsibilities, obligations, or duties of one's life; [fig.] place covered by a flood during Noah's time.
2. Group; type; variety; class; style; kind; genus; species; division.
3. Era; time period with all of its knowledge, technology, society, and beliefs; [fig.] long period of time.
4. Heaven; paradise; place in the afterlife where the righteous are rewarded; [fig.] angels; saints; inhabitants of heaven; [fig.] millennium; earth after the Second Coming of Christ.
5. Humankind; all the people on the Earth; all human beings; [fig.] ordinary people; [fig.] people who inhabit a planet.
6. Entirety of the Earth; all of creation; every existing thing; [fig.] all living things which were not aboard Noah's ark (see Genesis 7); [fig.] everywhere; throughout the universe. .
7. Earth; sphere upon which we live; third planet from the sun; [fig.] sphere which rotates on its axis producing days and seasons; [fig.] creation; Nature.
8. Area; region; environment; physical surroundings; places on the earth; area in which the writer lives; [fig.] all of the places in which humans reside.
9. Planet; [fig.] sphere; domain; habitat; habitation; environment; place; [fig.] something immense; thing of great importance; [fig.] vast distance; [fig.] huge obstacle; great barrier; [fig.] deterrent to arriving at knowledge; hindrance to understanding; [fig.] great change; extreme transformation.