Worldly
adj, adv ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Concerned with human or earthly matters, physical as opposed to spiritual.
"1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part Two, Chapter Twenty-four: Gossip, These attributes, in spite of poverty and the strict integrity which shut him out from the more worldly successes, attracted to him many admirable persons, as naturally as sweet herbs draw bees, and as naturally he gave them the honey into which fifty years of hard experience had distilled no bitter drop."
- 2 Concerned with secular rather than sacred matters.
- 3 Sophisticated, especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world.
"Homer and Marge have to try to explain things to children who are too worldly to fall for most excuses, the explanation trails off, and what could be a pleasant family outing to solve it all turns out to be yet another excuse for self-involvement when one public humiliation doesn’t outweigh the joys of getting busy in a windmill."
- 1 very sophisticated especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world wordnet
- 2 characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world wordnet
- 1 In a worldly manner.
Example
More examples"There are five ways to emancipate themselves from the bond of worldly passions."
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 (“worldly”), Icelandic veraldlegur (“worldly; secular”).
From Middle English worldly, worldliche, wordly (adverb), from Old English woroldlīċe, weoroldlīċe; equivalent to world + -ly (adverbial suffix).
Related phrases
More for "worldly"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.