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Synonyms

Weltanschauung

American  
[velt-ahn-shou-oong] / ˈvɛltˌɑnˌʃaʊ ʊŋ /

noun

German.
  1. worldview.


Weltanschauung British  
/ ˈvɛltanʃauʊŋ /

noun

  1. a comprehensive view or personal philosophy of human life and the universe

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Weltanschauung

First recorded in 1865–70; Welt “world” + Anschauung “view, conception, perception”; Anschauung ( def. ); world ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Weltanschauung refers to an apprehension, usually one stemming from a specific standpoint.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 29, 2021

Today, some of the best photos in Us Weekly come from Instagram, one of the many descendants of the “Just Like Us” Weltanschauung.

From Slate • Sep. 22, 2016

This season’s Oscar favorites “The Revenant” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” seem to fall into the élite brospeak Weltanschauung, tracing impossible physical trials for revenge and a supposed moral order.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 3, 2016

About the waves, Mr. Finnegan tells us, “I realized I was seeing long German words in Gothic script, Arbeiterpartei and Oberkommando and Weltanschauung and Götterdämmerung, marching incongruously across the warm gray walls.”

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2015

I give the name of ‘radical empiricism’ to my Weltanschauung.

From Essays in Radical Empiricism by James, William