World

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun As an emblem of immensity, a great multitude or quantity; a large number.

II. World ·noun The inhabitants of the earth; the human race; people in general; the public; mankind.

III. World ·noun The earth and its inhabitants, with their concerns; the sum of human affairs and interests.

IV. World ·noun The earth and the surrounding heavens; the creation; the system of created things; existent creation; the universe.

V. World ·noun The customs, practices, and interests of men; general affairs of life; human society; public affairs and occupations; as, a knowledge of the world.

VI. World ·noun Any planet or heavenly body, especially when considered as inhabited, and as the scene of interests analogous with human interests; as, a plurality of worlds.

VII. World ·noun Individual experience of, or concern with, life; course of life; sum of the affairs which affect the individual; as, to begin the world with no property; to lose all, and begin the world anew.

VIII. World ·noun The earth and its affairs as distinguished from heaven; concerns of this life as distinguished from those of the life to come; the present existence and its interests; hence, secular affairs; engrossment or absorption in the affairs of this life; worldly corruption; the ungodly or wicked part of mankind.

IX. World ·noun In a more restricted sense, that part of the earth and its concerns which is known to any one, or contemplated by any one; a division of the globe, or of its inhabitants; human affairs as seen from a certain position, or from a given point of view; also, state of existence; scene of life and action; as, the Old World; the New World; the religious world; the Catholic world; the upper world; the future world; the heathen world.