worldly

[ wurld-lee ]

adjective

, world·li·er, world·li·est.

1. of or relating to this world as contrasted with heaven, spiritual life, etc.; earthly; mundane.

   Synonyms: temporal

   Antonyms: spiritual

2. experienced; knowing; sophisticated:

   the benefits of his worldly wisdom.

   Synonyms: cosmopolitan, urbane

3. devoted to, directed toward, or connected with the affairs, interests, or pleasures of this world.
4. of or relating to the people or laity; secular; neither ecclesiastical nor religious.
5. Obsolete. of, relating to, or existing on earth.

adverb

1. in a worldly manner (archaic except in combination):

   worldly-wise; worldly-minded.

worldly

/ ˈwɜːldlɪ /

adjective

1. not spiritual; mundane or temporal
2. Alsoworldly-minded absorbed in or concerned with material things or matters that are immediately relevant
3. Alsoworldly-wise versed in the ways of the world; sophisticated
4. archaic.
   existing on or relating to the earth
5. obsolete.
   secular; lay

adverb

1. archaic.
   in a worldly manner

Derived Forms

• ˈworldliness, noun

Other Words From

• worldli·ness noun
• pre·worldli·ness noun
• pre·worldly adjective
• super·worldli·ness noun
• super·worldly adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of worldly¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English wor(u)ldlīc. See world, -ly

Synonym Study

See earthly.

Example Sentences

Surely Leonardo’s erotic and emotional subjectivity within a repressive milieu was not nothing in shaping his worldly explorations — especially as a “disciple of experience” — but Burns doesn’t go there.

From Los Angeles Times

Seen as worldly and well-credentialed, they are helped by what many describe as an invisible boost in career or academic advancement.

From Los Angeles Times

But those themes do not satisfy certain paradoxical values that also make up the conservative mindset: a rather irreligious appetite for worldly possessions, and the desire for a pseudo-empirical justification for greed.

From Salon

Why bother assembling at least two full royal courts without throwing in a jaded minister, a worldly wise paramour or a tart-tongued sibling?

From Los Angeles Times

He was skeptical that you could get the evangelicals into political organization because it was too worldly.

From Salon

Related Words

• earthly
• earthy
• mundane
• practical
• secular
• temporal