WORLDLY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected forms: worldlier , worldliest

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very sophisticated especially because of surfeit; versed in the ways of the world

Example:

the benefits of his worldly wisdom

Synonyms:

blase; worldly

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)

Derivation:

worldliness (the quality or character of being intellectually sophisticated and worldly through cultivation or experience or disillusionment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world

Example:

temporal possessions of the church

Synonyms:

secular; temporal; worldly

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

economic (concerned with worldly necessities of life (especially money))

material (concerned with worldly rather than spiritual interests)

materialistic; mercenary; worldly-minded (marked by materialism)

mundane; terrestrial (concerned with the world or worldly matters)

Also:

earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)

profane; secular (not concerned with or devoted to religion)

sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)

Antonym:

unworldly (not concerned with the temporal world or swayed by mundane considerations)

Derivation:

world (the concerns of this life as distinguished from heaven and the afterlife)

worldliness (concern with worldly affairs to the neglect of spiritual needs)

Credits

Context examples:

As for Colonel Brandon, she was not only ready to worship him as a saint, but was moreover truly anxious that he should be treated as one in all worldly concerns; anxious that his tithes should be raised to the utmost; and scarcely resolved to avail herself, at Delaford, as far as she possibly could, of his servants, his carriage, his cows, and his poultry.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The time of the two parties uniting in the Octagon Room being correctly adjusted, Catherine was then left to the luxury of a raised, restless, and frightened imagination over the pages of Udolpho, lost from all worldly concerns of dressing and dinner, incapable of soothing Mrs. Allen's fears on the delay of an expected dressmaker, and having only one minute in sixty to bestow even on the reflection of her own felicity, in being already engaged for the evening.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

To Mr. Higginbotham such a dinner was advertisement of his worldly achievement and prosperity, and he honored it by delivering platitudinous sermonettes upon American institutions and the opportunity said institutions gave to any hard-working man to rise—the rise, in his case, which he pointed out unfailingly, being from a grocer's clerk to the ownership of Higginbotham's Cash Store.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Knowing this, Alleyne felt some little glow of worldly pride as he looked for the first time upon the land with which so many generations of his ancestors had been associated.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And that's our cool, reserved, and worldly Amy!

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I apprehend you never supposed my worldly circumstances to be very good,” replied the assistant.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mr Elliot is evidently a disingenuous, artificial, worldly man, who has never had any better principle to guide him than selfishness.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It will be beautiful and no expense will be spared, making you feel you’ve stepped into an other-worldly dream.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

And farther, how could it be supposed that his sister, with all her high and worldly notions of matrimony, would be forwarding anything of a serious nature in such a quarter?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had always felt that Charlotte's opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she had not supposed it to be possible that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage.