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worldly

adjective · adverb

Simple meaning

Concerned with human or earthly matters.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wurldlee

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwɝldli

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

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.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Concerned with human or earthly matters, physical as opposed to spiritual.

Used this way, worldly 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

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use worldly

  • “Worldly goods and advancement.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Concerned / characteristic

worldly affairsworldly life

Other combinations

worldly wisdomworldly successworldly powerworldly prosperityworldly ambition

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • material

    Of, relating to, or consisting of matter, especially physical.

  • terrestrial

    Concerned with the world or worldly matters.

  • mundane

    Pertaining to the Universe, cosmos or physical reality, as opposed to the spiritual world.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • worldnounBase word

    Everything that exists anywhere.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • worldly belongingsnounCompound term

    All the property that someone possesses.

  • worldly concernnounCompound term

    The concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife.

  • worldly goodnounCompound term

    A commodity or good associated with the earthly, rather than the spiritual, existence of human beings.

  • worldly possessionnounCompound term

    A commodity or good associated with the earthly, rather than the spiritual, existence of human beings.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: concerned with human or earthly matters

sophisticatedblase

Antonyms

Sense: concerned with human or earthly matters

unworldly

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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.