world
/wɝld/noun, verb
world is spelled W-O-R-L-D. The wrong spelling people search most is worls: about 240 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 357 of all searches for the word. World is a noun meaning “The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the…”. The plural of world is worlds.
How many letters and syllables are in world?
| Letters | 5: W-O-R-L-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 776 times per million words; the 137th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, worls, about 240 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell world?
World is spelled W-O-R-L-D. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 216 of the searches for world in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is world?
World appears 776 times per million words in written English, the 137th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce world?
- UK /wɜːld/
- US /wɝld/
- US [wɝɫd]
World has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-world.oga, En-ca-world.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with world
Sounds like: whirled, whorled (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with world?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as world from its last stressed vowel (/ɜɹld/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of world
- worlds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- vurld
- worlding participle, present
- worlded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does world mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The subjective human experience, regarded collectively; human collective existence; existence in general; the reality we live in.
In retrospect, the process of economic globalization has meant the end of the world as we knew it.
- 2
The subjective human experience, regarded individually.
The period immediately following my divorce seemed like the end of my world.
- 3
A majority of people.
Running after God is the only life worth living. Even though the world believes that living for God is boring, we believe that there is nothing more exciting.
- 4
The Universe.
- 5
The Earth, especially in a geopolitical or cultural context, or as the physical planet.
People are dying of starvation all over the world.
- 6
Any of several possible scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
Who would want to live in a world like this?
- 7
(Several) alternative scenarios concerning The Earth, either as the physical planet, or in a geopolitical, cultural or societal context.
- 8
A distinct realm, capable of containing objects or inhabitants, which does not physically border other similar realms.
verb
- 1
To consider or cause to be considered from a global perspective; to consider as a global whole, rather than making or focusing on national or other distinctions; compare globalize.
- 2
To make real; to make worldly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
World in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | monde , univers , La Terre, terre |
| German | Welt, Wöd , Erde |
| Portuguese | mundo |
| Spanish | mundo , universo , globo, tierra |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does world come from?
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”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).