terraforming

/ ˈtɛrəˌfɔːmɪŋ /

noun

1. planetary engineering designed to enhance the capacity of an extraterrestrial planetary environment to sustain life

Word History and Origins

Origin of terraforming¹

C20: from Latin terra earth + forming

Example Sentences

And there is another hope too: that it broadcasts a message of how a billionaire might live his or her best life — without terraforming Mars, without Burning Man, without the attempts to stealth-run Harvard University.

From Seattle Times

For nearly two decades, the art form formerly known as television did nothing but grow, in wild and glorious abandon, as if it had been touched by a terraforming agent from “Doctor Who.”

From Los Angeles Times

Once a dead orb, the world has been engineered over millennia with vast amounts of high-tech human, robotic and organic effort — the “terraforming” of the title.

From Washington Post

They become enamored of certain ideas — fixing African agriculture, resurrecting von Mises and Hayek, terraforming Mars, being the president — and can spend nearly unlimited sums in the pursuit of making them a reality.

From New York Times

"One idea is that CFCs could be useful in terraforming a planet to make it warmer — this idea has been suggested as a way for humans to terraform Mars," Misra said.

From Salon