# universe

Pronunciation: US say "YOO-nuh-vurs" /ˈjuːnəˌvɝs/; UK say "YOO-ni-vurs" /ˈjuːnɪˌvɜːs/

## Noun

1. The entirety of everything that exists in the cosmos, including all matter, energy, space, and time.
   - Simple: Everything that exists, including all space, time, stars, planets, and energy.
   - _Astronomers estimate that the observable universe contains hundreds of billions of galaxies._
   - _According to relativity, nothing in the universe travels faster than light in a vacuum._
2. The imaginary world in which a work or series of fiction takes place, especially one shared by several connected stories, films, or games.
   - Simple: The made-up world where a story or series of stories happens, sometimes shared by many books, films, or games.
   - _Tolkien's universe includes invented languages and thousands of years of fictional history._
   - _Each novel explores a different corner of the same sprawling universe._
3. A complete, self-contained realm of space and time similar to our own, regarded as one component of a larger whole known as the multiverse.
   - Simple: One complete world of space, time, and stars, which may be only one of many.
   - _Each universe in the multiverse could have its own physical constants._
   - _If other universes exist, we may never be able to observe them directly._
4. The complete set of items, people, options, or observations under consideration in a discussion, analysis, or study; in statistics and market research, the whole population from which samples are drawn.
   - Simple: All the things, people, or choices being considered in a discussion or study, such as everyone a survey could include.
   - _The committee narrowed the universe of candidates from two hundred to twelve._
   - _Within the universe of apartments in our price range, only three allow pets._
5. A person's entire world, understood as the perspective, concerns, or social setting that defines their life.
   - Simple: Everything that makes up a person's life or way of seeing things.
   - _When the company folded, it felt as though her universe had collapsed overnight._
   - _The boarding school became a self-contained universe with its own rituals and politics._
6. A deity identified with the sum of everything that exists, rather than a being separate from creation.
   - Simple: A god that is the same as everything that exists.
   - _In her belief, the universe itself listens and answers, needing no temples or scriptures._
   - _Followers of the movement worship the universe as a single divine whole._

## Noun

7. The Earth itself, conceived of as the great sphere of the world on which all people live. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The whole Earth, with all its lands and seas.

## Origin

Latin vertō ("to turn") has the past participle versus ("turned"). Joined with uni-, a form of unus ("one"), it made universus ("all together, whole, entire"), literally "turned or combined into one," whose neuter universum meant "all things, as a whole." This passed into Old French as univers and into Middle English as universe.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/universe (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).