Word.ws English Dictionary

earth

/ɜːθ//ɝθ/

earth is the alternative letter-case form of Earth.

Noun

earth (countable and uncountable, plural earths)

  1. (uncountable) Soil.
    • This is good earth for growing potatoes.
  2. (uncountable) Any general rock-based material.
    • She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.
  3. The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
    • Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.
    • Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle...2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
  4. (UK) A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
  5. The lair or den (as a hole in the ground, or a system of tunnels) of an animal, such as a badger.
    • When a new earth is made I have always found the badger appropriate the holes of rabbits, and proceed to excavate, enlarge, and open them out.1898, Sir Alfred Edward Pease, The Badger, Lawrence and Bullen, page 44
    Synonyms:
    burrow, warren
  6. A region of the planet; a land or country.
  7. Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
  8. The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
    • "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 5, page...
  9. (metonymically) The people on the globe.
    • And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 11:1, column 2
  10. Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.
    • New space telescopes may accelerate the search for other earths that may be out there.
  11. (archaic) The human body.
  12. (philosophy and Taoism) The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
  13. (obsolete) Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.
    • The term Earths was formerly, and is still, but in a modified sense, applied to several substances which compose all the various rocks, stones, gems, mountains, and soils covering the face of the globe. They are tasteless, inodorous, dry, uninflamable, sparingly soluble, difficult of fusion, and of...1846, unspecified, METALS, OXIDES, EARTHS AND ALKALIES

Verb

earth (third-person singular simple present earths, present participle earthing, simple past and past participle earthed)

  1. (UK, transitive) To connect electrically to the earth.
    • That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.
    Synonyms:
    ground
  2. (transitive) To bury.
    • The Miſer earths his Treaſure; and the Thief, / Watching the Mole, half-beggars him ere Morn.1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint...
  3. (transitive) To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
    • […]the Fox is earth’d,[…]1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 48
    • This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed...1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion
  4. (intransitive) To burrow.
    • foxes earth'da. 1740, Thomas Tickell, Fragment on Hunting

Proper noun capitalized: Earth

Earth (usually uncountable, plural Earths)

  1. (usually) The third planet of the Solar System; the world upon which humans live.
    • It's my theory that we'll keep being reborn on as many Earths as it takes until every person gets it exactly right from the moment they are born until the moment they die.2012, Ken Adams, Earth 2... It's Where You Go When You Die
    • The arrival of the new prefixes means the Earth can now be said to weigh six ronnagrams, and Jupiter about two quettagrams.2022 November 18, Ian Sample, “Earth weighs in at six ronnagrams as new prefixes picked for big and small”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    the Blue Planet, the globe, God's green earth, Sol III, Terra, the world, Middle Earth, Midgard
  2. (usually) The personification of the Earth or earth, (chiefly) as a fertile woman or (religion) goddess.
    Synonyms:
    Mother Earth for female forms, world

Synonyms of earth

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of earth

Proper noun
alternative Scotlandairth
pluralEarths
alternative formearth
alternative form (dialectal, rare)erd
alternative form (obsolete)yearth
Noun
pluralearths
Verb
third-person singular presentearths
present participleearthing
past participleearthed
pastearthed

Origin of earth

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁érteh₂ (“earth”). Cognates Cognate with Scots erd, yerd, yird, yirth (“earth, loam, mould, soil; ground”), Yola eard, eart, eord, eorth, erth (“earth”), North Frisian eerd, eerde, iarde, Iart, iir, jard, örd, Öört (“earth; world”), Saterland Frisian Idde, Äid, Äide (“earth; soil; ground”), West Frisian ierde (“earth; soil; ground”), Alemannic German Ëërde (“earth”), Bavarian Erd, Erdn (“world; soil; ground”), Central Franconian Ääd (“earth”), Cimbrian èerda (“earth”), Dutch aard, aarde (“earth”), German Erde (“earth; soil; ground; world”), German Low German Eer (“earth”), Limburgish eerd (“earth”), Luxembourgish Äerd (“earth; soil”), Vilamovian Ād (“earth”), Yiddish ערד (erd, “earth; soil”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish jord (“earth”), Faroese jørð (“earth”), Icelandic jörð (“earth”), Norn yurn (“the earth”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰 (airþa, “earth”); also Latin ōra (“border, edge, rim”), Breton erv (“ridge between furrows”), Welsh erw (“acre”), Ancient Greek ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground”), Lithuanian...

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-Germanic *erþō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”). More at earth.

Words formed from earth

Phrases with earth

169 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with earth

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about earth

What does earth mean?
Earth means soil.
What is earth the alternative letter-case form of?
Earth is the alternative letter-case form of Earth.
What part of speech is earth?
Earth can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce earth?
Earth is pronounced /ɜːθ/ (UK).
What is the plural of earth?
The plural of earth is earths.

Words near earth in the dictionary

  1. earstone
  2. earstones
  3. Earswick
  4. eartag
  5. eartags
  6. earth
  7. earth almond
  8. earth almonds
  9. earth apple
  10. earth apples
  11. earth art

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earth (page history and authors); Earth (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-earth.ogg, en-us-earth.ogg.

Cite this entry: “earth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/earth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.