worlds

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of world.

   Science fiction often imagines worlds where the laws of physics differ from ours.

   The telescope revealed distant worlds orbiting other stars.

   Note

   A regular plural whose spelling is shared: the same letters also spell the verb's present form and the intensifying adverb. As a noun, it suits the meanings that can be counted, such as the several possible scenarios fiction imagines or planets beyond our own. Meanings that come with the definite article, like the Earth itself or 'the world' as most people, name one thing and sit awkwardly in the plural.

2. 2
   adverbfiguratively

   To a great extent; by far; much more than otherwise.

   The remastered version sounds worlds better than the original recording.

   The two siblings are worlds apart in temperament.

   Similarfar, much, miles, vastly

   Oppositeslightly, marginally

   Note

   Here the noun becomes a measure of distance, as if whole worlds separated two things. It goes directly before a comparative: Les Chappell, reviewing The Simpsons in 2016, calls implied nudity worlds funnier than actual nudity. It also appears in worlds apart. The word has no comparative of its own, so it intensifies other words and is never graded itself.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialabbreviation

   Abbreviation of world championships. Informal.

   He took silver at the worlds in Tokyo last season.

   Three skaters from the club made it to the worlds this year.

   Note

   Competitors' shorthand that keeps the plural of the full name and comes with the: Motorboating in 1986 has new boat designs showing great speed in a breeze in the Worlds. Capitalized, it reads as the event's name; lowercase, as casual talk. Because it is colloquial, spell out world championships in formal reports, at least on first mention.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of world.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is transitive: something worlds something else. One meaning sits close to globalize, treating a matter as a global whole rather than nation by nation. The other means to make real or worldly. In a sentence, the verb comes after a singular subject and takes an object, and that position is what distinguishes it from the plural noun.

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