World

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World

World is a common name for the planet Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
seen from a human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
point of view, as a place inhabited by human beings. It is often used to signify the sum of human experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
and history

HIStory

Human condition

The human condition encompasses all of the experience of being human. As mortal entities, there are a series of biology determined events that are common to most human lives, and some that are inevitable for all....
' in general.

In a metaphysical

Metaphysics

Metaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics....
context, World may refer to the Universe

Universe

The universe is defined as everything that physically exists: the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter, energy and momentum, and the physical laws and physical constants that govern them....
, everything that constitutes reality

Reality

Reality, in everyday usage, means "the state of things as they actually exist". In a sense it is what is real. The term reality, in its widest sense, includes everything that being, whether or not it is observation or comprehension....
: see World (philosophy)

World (philosophy)

In philosophy, the World is everything that makes up reality. While clarifying the concept of world has arguably always been among the basic tasks of Western philosophy, this theme appears to have been raised explicitly only at the start of the twentieth century and has been the subject of continuous debate....

a class="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m15305",this)' onMouseout='hide("m15305")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/English_language">English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, the etymology of world may be a compound of the obsolete words were
WERE

WERE is an AM broadcasting radio station licensed to Cleveland Heights, Ohio and operating on 1490 Kilohertz. The station's studios are in downtown Cleveland, while the transmitter is along Euclid Avenue near East 118th Street, adjacent to the Case Western Reserve University campus....
, "man", and eld, "age"; thus, its etymology would be semantically rendered as "age or life of man".

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Encyclopedia

World is a common name for the planet Earth

Earth

Human

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
and history

HIStory

Human condition

Metaphysics

Universe

Reality

World (philosophy)

Etymology

In English

English language

Usage

'World' distinguishes the entire planet

Planet

A planet , as 2006 definition of planet by the International Astronomical Union , is a celestial body orbiting a star or Stellar evolution#Stellar remnants that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared the neighbourhood of planetesimals....
or population

Population

File:Population density.pngIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings....
from any particular country

Country

Country may refer to the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. In another meaning of the word, the country is also a term used to refer to rural areas....
or region

Region

Region is a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region is a medium-scale area of land or water, smaller than the whole areas of interest , and larger than a specific site A region may be seen as a collection of smaller units or as one part of a larger whole ....
: world affairs are those which pertain not just to one place but to the whole world, and world history
World History

World History is a field of historiography that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective....
is a field of history

HIStory

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995, and is Jackson's ninth. The first disc, named "HIStory Begins" consists of a selection of Jackson's greatest hits from the singer's past fifteen years, while the second, named "HIStory Continues" features new songs, with the...
which examines events from a global (rather than a national or a regional) perspective. Earth, on the other hand, refers to the planet as a physical entity, and distinguishes it from other planets and physical objects.

'World' can also be used attributively, as an adjective

Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
, to mean 'global', 'relating to the whole world', forming usages such as World community

World community

The term is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or inclusion of all people in all lands and their governments....
. See World (adjective)

World (adjective)

History...
.

By extension, a 'world' may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited.

'World', when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of human

Human

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
.

The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of a career
Career

Career is a term defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual's "course or progress through life ". It usually is considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
, in all its social aspects, to distinguish it from home life and academic
Academia

Academia, Academe, or the Academy are collective terms for the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research....
study.
The fashion world describes the environment of the designers, fashion house
Fashion House

Fashion House is an United States telenovela that aired at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT Monday through Saturday on MyNetworkTV stations. The series premiered on September 5, 2006 and concluded on December 5, 2006....
s and consumer
Consumer

Consumer is a broad label that refers to any individuals or household that use Good generated within the economic system. The concept of a consumer is used in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary....
s that make up the fashion industry.
The New World
New World

The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa ....
is a part of the world discovered or colonized by Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
ans later than other parts; it usually refers to the American
Americas

The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
continents or to Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
and Native Australians tend to dislike this usage. For them America and Australia are not new. Their ancestors have lived there since time immemorial
Time immemorial

Time immemorial is a phrase meaning time extending beyond the reach of memory, record, or tradition. The implication is that the subject referred to is, or can be regarded as, indefinitely ancient....
. The Old World
Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century....
refers, by contrast, to the continents of Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
and north Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
.

Earth

Earth is the only place in the universe

Universe

Life

Life is a characteristic of organisms that exhibit certain biological processes such as chemical reactions or other events that results in a transformation....
is known by humanity

Humanity

Humanity is the whole human species, human nature , and the human condition . It is also the study of one branch of the humanities, academic disciplines which study the human condition using analytic, critical, or speculative methods....
to exist at this time. Most scientific evidence indicates that the planet formed 4.6 billion years

Age of the Earth

Modern Geology and geophysicists consider the age of the Earth to be around 1 E17 s This age has been determined by Radiometric dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and Earth's moon Moon rock....
ago, and life appeared on its surface within a billion years. Since then, Earth's biosphere

Biosphere

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. From the broadest Geophysiology point of view, the biosphere is the global ecology system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and Earth's atmosphere....
has significantly altered the atmosphere

Earth's atmosphere

The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth that is retained by the Earth's gravity. Dry air contains roughly 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, and trace amounts of other gases....
and other abiotic conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of aerobic organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer

Ozone layer

The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 93-99% of the sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to life on earth....
which, together with Earth's magnetic field

Magnetic field

A magnetism field is a vector field which can exert a magnetic force on moving electric charges and on magnetic dipoles . When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles tend to align their axes parallel to the magnetic field....
, blocks harmful radiation, permitting life on land.

Earth's outer surface

Crust (geology)

In geology, a crust is the outermost solid shell of a planet or moon, which is chemically distinct from the underlying mantle . Crusts of Earth , our Moon, Mercury , Venus, and Mars have been generated largely by igneous processes, and these crusts are richer in incompatible elements than their respective mantle s....
is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plate

Tectonic Plate

#REDIRECT Plate tectonics...
s, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years

Geologic time scale

File:Geologic clock.jpgThe geologic time scale is a chronology schema relating stratigraphy to time that is used by geologys and other earth sciences scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth....
. About 71% of the surface is covered with salt-water

Seawater

Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%, or 35 parts per thousand . This means that every 1 kg of seawater has approximately 35 grams of sea salt ....
ocean

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
s, the remainder consisting of continent

Continent

A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents ? they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia ....
s and island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
s; liquid water

Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
, necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planet's surface. Earth's interior remains active, with a thick layer of relatively solid mantle

Mantle (geology)

The mantle is a part of an astronomical object. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers....
, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron inner core

Inner core

The inner core of the Earth, its innermost part as detected by seismology, is a primarily solid sphere about in radius, only about 70% that of the Moon....
.

The earth consists of seven continents listed as follows: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia; the largest of which is Asia. There are several other methods of determining the continents.

Earth is impacted upon by other objects in outer space

Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
, including the Sun

Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
and the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 365.26 times it rotates about its axis. This length of time is a sidereal year

Sidereal year

The sidereal year is a misnomer for solar orbit. It is the time taken for the Sun to return to the same position with respect to the stars of the celestial sphere....
, which is equal to 365.26 solar days. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted

Axial tilt

In astronomy, axial tilt is the inclination angle of a planet axis of rotation in relation to its Orbital plane . It is also called axial inclination or obliquity....
23.4° away from the perpendicular

Perpendicular

In geometry, two line or plane , are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruence adjacent angles angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective....
to its orbital plane

Orbital plane (astronomy)

The orbital plane of an object orbiting another is the geometrical Plane in which the orbit is embedding. Three points in space suffice to define the orbital plane....
, producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year

Tropical year

A tropical year is the length of time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth; for example, the time from vernal equinox to vernal equinox, or from summer solstice to summer solstice....
(365.24 solar days). Earth's only known natural satellite

Natural satellite

A natural satellite or moon is a celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called the primary. Technically, the term natural satellite could refer to a planet orbiting a star, or a dwarf galaxy orbiting a major galaxy, but it is normally synonymous with moon and used to identify non-artificial satellites...
, the Moon, which began orbiting it about 4.53 billion years ago, provides ocean tide

Tide

Tides are the rising of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuary water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation ....
s, stabilizes the axial tilt and gradually slows the planet's rotation. A comet

Comet

A comet is a Small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibits a visible coma or a tail?both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the Comet nucleus....
ary bombardment during the early history of the planet played a role in the formation of the oceans. Later, asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
impacts caused significant changes to the surface environment.

Humanity

Humans are bipedal primate

Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s belonging to the mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
ian species Homo sapiens. Compared to animals, humans have a highly developed

Encephalization

Encephalization is defined as the amount of brain mass exceeding that related Brain to body mass ratio. Quantifying an animal's encephalization has been argued to be directly related to that animal's level of intelligence....
brain capable of abstract reasoning, language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
, and introspection

Introspection

Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thoughts, Motivation and sensations. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul....
. This mental capability, combined with an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects, has allowed humans to make far greater use of tool

Tool

A broad definition of a tool is an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other....
s than any other species. DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetics instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses....
evidence indicates that modern humans originated in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
about 200,000 years ago. Humans now inhabit every continent and low Earth orbit

Low Earth orbit

A Low Earth Orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the Locus extending from the Earth?s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km. Given the rapid orbital decay of objects below approximately 200 km, the commonly accepted definition for LEO is between 160 - 2,000 km above the Earth surface....
, with a total population of over 6.73 billion humans as of January 2009.

Like most primates, humans are social by nature. However, humans are particularly adept at utilizing systems of communication for self-expression, the exchange of ideas, and organization. Humans create complex social structure

Social structure

Social structure is a term frequently used in sociology and social theory ? yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised . In a general sense, the term can refer to:...
s composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families

Family

Family denotes a group of people affiliated by a common ancestry, affinity or co-residence. Although the concept of consanguinity originally referred to relations by "blood," some cultural anthropology have argued that one must understand the idea of "blood" metaphorically, and that many societies understand 'family' through other concepts r...
to nation

Nation

A nation is a cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community....
s. Social interaction

Social interaction

Social interaction is a dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between individuals who modify their actions and reactions according to those of their interaction partner....
s between humans have established an extremely wide variety of traditions, rituals, ethics, values, social norms

Norm (sociology)

A Social norm is the sociology term for the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors....
, and law

LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
s which form the basis of human society. Humans have a marked appreciation for beauty and aesthetics which, combined with the human desire for self-expression, has led to cultural innovations such as art

Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
and music

Music

Music is an art form whose media is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics , and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ....
.

Humans are noted for their desire to understand and influence the world around them, seeking to explain and manipulate natural phenomena through science

Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
, philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
, mythology

Mythology

The word mythology refers to a body of folklore/myths/legends that a particular culture believes to be true and that often use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity....
and religion

Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
. This natural curiosity has led to the development of advanced tools and skills.

Development

A summary of world development:

The universe is continuing its metric expansion
Metric expansion of space

The metric expansion of space is the averaged increase of metric distance between objects in the universe with time. It is an intrinsic and extrinsic properties expansion?that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space....
.
Our galaxy is approaching its neighbor
Andromeda-Milky Way collision

The Andromeda-Milky Way collision is a predicted galaxy collision that is due to take place in approximately five billion years' time between the two largest galaxies in the Local Group ? the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy....
.
The Sun is shining brighter and brighter
Solar luminosity

The solar luminosity, , is a unit of luminosity conventionally used by astronomers to give the luminosities of stars.It is equal to the current accepted luminosity of the Sun, which is 3.839 × 1026 Watt, or 3.839 × 1033erg/s....
.
Species are becoming fewer
Holocene extinction event

The Holocene extinction event is the widespread, ongoing mass extinction of species during the modern Holocene epoch . The large number of extinctions span numerous families of plants and animals including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods; a sizeable fraction of these extinctions are occurring in the rainforests....
.
Humans are increasing in number
Population growth

Population growth is the change in population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
.
Human life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living, and GDP per capita
Economic development

Economic development is the development of wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. It is the process by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well being of its people....
are increasing.
Technology
Technology development

Technological development is the process of research and New product development of technology. Many emerging technologies are expected to become generally applied in the near future....
and socioculture
Sociocultural evolution

Sociocultural evolution is an umbrella term for theories of cultural evolution and social evolution, describing how cultures and society have developed over time....
are also developing.

World

Etymology

Usage

Earth

Humanity

Development

See also

External links