Dictionaries › English

worldly

Pronunciation: /ˈwɜː(ɹ)ldli/

The English word “worldly” has 4 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Concerned with human or earthly matters, physical as opposed to spiritual.
  2. Concerned with secular rather than sacred matters.
  3. Sophisticated, especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world.

adverb

  1. In a worldly manner.

Etymology

From Middle English worldly, worldlich, wordly (adjective), from Old English woruldlīċ, worldlīċ, weoroldlīċ (“worldly; earthly; temporal; mundane; secular”), from Proto-Germanic *weraldilīkaz, equivalent to world + -ly. Cognate with Dutch wereldlijk (“worldly; secular”), German Low German weltlik (“worldly”), German weltlich (“worldly”), Danish verdslig (“worldly”), Swedish världslig…

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “worldly” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.