World-wide or worldwide?
world-wide is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of worldwide”; worldwide is an adjective meaning “Spanning the world; global”. world-wide is written with a hyphen and worldwide as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between world-wide and worldwide?
| world-wide | worldwide | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb | adjective, adverb |
| Meaning | Alternative form of worldwide | Spanning the world; global Throughout the world |
| Example | none recorded | A large meteorite impact would cause worldwide extinction of life |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈwɜːldˌwaɪd/ /ˌwɜːldˈwaɪd/ /ˈwɝldˌwaɪd/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 35 times per million words |
Sources: world-wide and worldwide in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of world-wide and worldwide
world-wide
- 1
Alternative form of worldwide
- 2
Alternative form of worldwide
worldwide
- 1
Spanning the world; global
A large meteorite impact would cause worldwide extinction of life
- 2
Throughout the world
The character of James Bond is known worldwide
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, world-wide or worldwide?
world-wide is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; worldwide 35 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search world-wide vs worldwide?
“world-wide vs worldwide” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“worldwide vs world-wide”, “world-wide or worldwide”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.