world
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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5 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "world", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "world" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "world" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
world is aEnglishnoun. It means: The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the reality we live in. Pronounced /wɜːld/. It ranks #136 in English word frequency. Often confused with worn and worm.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | world |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wɜːld/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #136 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for world is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɜːld/. Corpus data places it at rank #136 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for world, with forms such as "owrld", "wolrd", and "wordl". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "worn", "worm", "wort", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Germanic *weraz Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *h₂életi Proto-Germanic *alaną Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-Germanic *aldiz Proto-Germanic *… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is world, spelled W-O-R-L-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the reality we live in.
- 2The subjective human experience, regarded individually.
- 3A majority of people.
- 4The Universe.
- 5The Earth, especially in a geopolitical or cultural context, or as the physical planet.
- 6Any of several possible scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
- 7(Several) alternative scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
- 8A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.
- 9A planet, especially one which is inhabited or inhabitable.
- 10A very large extent of country.
- 11In various mythologies, cosmologies, etc., one of a number of separate realms or regions having different characteristics and occupied by different types of inhabitants.
- 12A fictional realm, such as a planet, containing one or multiple societies of beings, especially intelligent ones.
- 13An individual or group perspective or social setting.
- 14The part of an operating system distributed with the kernel, consisting of the shell and other programs.
- 15A subdivision of a game, consisting of a series of stages or levels that usually share a similar environment or theme.
- 16The twenty-second trump or major arcana card of the tarot.
- 17A great amount, a lot.
- 18Age, era.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós Proto-Germanic *weraz Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *h₂életi Proto-Germanic *alaną Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Germanic *-þiz Proto-Germanic *aldiz Proto-Germanic *weraldiz Proto-West Germanic *weraldi Old English weorold Middle English world English world From Middle English world, from Old English weorold (“world”), from Proto-West Germanic *weraldi, from Proto-Germanic *weraldiz (“lifetime, human existence, world”, literally “age/era of man”), equivalent to wer (“man”) + eld (“age”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English mounde (“world”), from Old French monde, munde (“world”). Cognates Cognate with Scots warld (“world”), North Frisian Wārel, wäält, wråål (“world”), Saterland Frisian Waareld (“world”), West Frisian wrâld (“world”), Afrikaans wêreld (“world”), Bavarian Wöd (“world”), Dutch wereld (“world”), German, Luxembourgish Welt (“world”), German Low German Wereld, Werld (“world”), Vilamovian wełt (“world”), Yiddish וועלט (velt, “world”), Danish verden (“world”), Elfdalian wärd (“world”), Faroese verð, verøld (“world”), Icelandic veröld (“world”), Norn vrildan (“the earth”), Norwegian Bokmål verd, verden (“(the) world”), Norwegian Nynorsk verd (“world”), Swedish värld (“world”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owrld,wolrd,wordl,worldd,worlld,worrld,wrold,wworld
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for world
Misspelling Variants of "world"
Frequency rank: #136 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: