earth

earth n Earth, world, universe, cosmos, macrocosm are comparable when they mean the entire area or extent of space in which man thinks of himself and of his fellow men as living and acting.

Earth applies, however, only to part of what he knows by sight or by faith to exist; the term usually suggests a distinction between the sphere or globe called astronomically the earth, which he knows to be composed of land and water, and the bodies which he sees in the heavens

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this goodly frame, the earth— Shak.

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land is part of Earth's surface which stands at a given time above sea level— Lord

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It may imply a distinction from heaven and hell

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Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven— Mt 6:10

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the infinite loftiness of Mary's nature, among the things of earth, and above the clamor of kings— Henry Adams

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World is a far less definite term than earth. When applied to a physical entity, it may denote all that illimitable area which to man's senses, at least, includes not only the earth and other planets but all the space surrounding the earth and all the bodies contained within it

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it is not accident that wherever we point the telescope . . . wherever we look with the microscope there we find beauty. It beats in through every nook and cranny of the mighty world— R. M. Jones

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To persons who accept the account of creation in Genesis the term denotes the entire system that was brought into being by the word of God

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God made the world

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expect the destruction of the world

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The term, nevertheless, is usually used as equivalent to earth, the globe

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a trip around the world

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he wanted to visit every corner of the world

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As applied to an immaterial entity, world may imply the sum total of all the inhabitants of earth and of their interests and concerns

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all the world loves a lover

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the world was one in desiring peace

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the doctrine of imperialism which condemns the world to endless war— Willkie

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or that section or part of this larger world which comes within the knowledge of the individual (man's relation to the world about him)

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his family and his business comprised his world

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among the friends of his three worlds, the intellectuals, the Concord family circle, and the farmers, he was always a little on edge with the first— Canby

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or the section or part of the larger world which is devoted to secular, as distinct from religious or spiritual, concerns

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retire from the world

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the world, the flesh, and the devil

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the world is too much with us— Wordsworth

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I too love the earth and hate the world. God made the first, and man . . . has made the second— Santayana

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Universe, in its most precise sense, denotes the entire system of created things or of physical phenomena, regarded as a unit both in its organization and in its operation

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ancient and medieval astronomers regarded the earth as the fixed center of the universe

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the astronomers of today teach that the universe is finite but that it is constantly expanding

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what was true for the development of man, the microcosm, must have been true for the genesis of the universe as a whole, the macrocosm— S. F. Mason

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Universe, however, is also used in reference to an entire system of phenomenal things as that system appears to the limited vision of the typical man or of the individual

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from the universe as we see it both the Glory of God and the Glory of Man have departed— Krutch

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he inhabited a different universe from that of common men— Huxley

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Cosmos, because of its opposition to chaos, carries a stronger implication of order and harmony in operation than universe, which it otherwise closely resembles in meaning

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were it not for the indwelling reason the world would be a chaos and not a cosmos— Blackie

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Macrocosm applies to the universe thought of as a great whole characterized by perfect organic unity exhibited elsewhere only in the small whole, the individual man or microcosm

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the microcosm repeats the macrocosm— T. H. Huxley

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should these ephemera [flying disks] exist in the macrocosm, it is likely . . . that they would be known to ... observers of the atmosphere— Mauer

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