terrestrial
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Of or about or inhabiting the land.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
terehstreeuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tɚˈɛstɹiəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or relating to or inhabiting the land as opposed to the sea or air
Of or relating to or characteristic of the planet Earth or its inhabitants
Of, relating to, or inhabiting the land of the Earth or its inhabitants, earthly.
Of, relating to, or composed of land or earth.
Living or growing in or on land (as opposed to other habitat); not aquatic, etc.
Operating or living or growing on land
noun
An inhabitant of the planet Earth.
Alternative letter-case form of Terrestrial ("Inhabitant of Earth").
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or relating to or inhabiting the land as opposed to the sea or air
Used this way, terrestrial is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- terrene , rarer, so it draws attention
- sublunary , rarer, so it draws attention
- telluric , rarer, so it draws attention
- sublunar , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use terrestrial
- “Most animals we know are terrestrial, meaning they live on land.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Relating / living
Broadcast
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.
A method of controlling the flight of a missile by devices that respond to the strength and direction of the earth's gravitational field.
A planet having a compact rocky surface like the Earth's.
A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.