World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth.

In a philosophical context it may refer to:

  1. the whole of the physical Universe, or
  2. an ontological world (see world disclosure).

In a theological context, world usually refers to the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred. The "end of the world" refers to scenarios of the final end of human history, often in religious contexts.

World history is commonly understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia, from the first civilizations to the present.

World population is the sum of all human populations at any time; similarly, world economy is the sum of the economies of all societies (all countries), especially in the context of globalization. Terms like world championship, gross world product, world flags etc. also imply the sum or combination of all current-day sovereign states.

In terms such as world religion, world language, and world war, world suggests international or intercontinental scope without necessarily implying participation of the entire world.

In terms such as world map and world climate, world is used in the sense detached from human culture or civilization, referring to the planet Earth physically.

Read more about World:  Etymology and Usage, Philosophy, Religion and Mythology

Famous quotes containing the word world:

    “The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.”
    —Gore Vidal (b. 1925)

    “... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
    —Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    “But the highest minds of the world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, or, shall I say, the quadruple, or the centuple, or much more manifold meaning, of every sensuous fact.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)