Word.ws English Dictionary

earthling

Syllables: earth·lingUK/ˈɜːθlɪŋ/US/ˈɝθlɪŋ/

earthling noun: one who tills the earth; a farmer, a husbandman, a ploughman. Also the alternative letter-case form of Earthling.

Noun (1)

earthling (plural earthlings)

  1. (obsolete except historical) One who tills the earth; a farmer, a husbandman, a ploughman.
    • Eoꞃðlinᵹ [Eorthling], is a Husbandman, or Earthling.1714, John Fortescue-Aland [i.e., John Fortescue Aland, 1st Baron Fortescue of Credan], “Hereafter is Schewyd, What of the Kyngs Lyvelood Gevyn Away, may Best be Takyn Ageyne”, in John Fortescue, The...
    • And we have not imagination enough to believe, that either the Danish boors, who were earthlings (yrthlingas) in the country, or the Danish soldiers, who, as history tells us, were dandies at the court of King Canute, could, in the brief space of twenty years, have so overlaid or interlarded the...1838 July, [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow], “Art. IV.—1. A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, […] [book review]”, in The North American Review, volume XLVII, number C, Boston, Mass.: Otis...

Noun (2) capitalized: Earthling

Earthling (plural Earthlings)

  1. An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of heaven.
    • VVe (of all earthlings) are Gods vtmoſt ſubiects, the laſt (in a manner) that he bought to his obedience: ſhal we then forgette that vvee are any ſubiects of hys, becauſe (as amongſt his Angels) he is not viſibly conuerſant amongſt vs?1593, Tho[mas] Nashe, Christs Teares Over Ierusalem. […], London: […] Iames Roberts, and are to be solde by Andrewe Wise, […], →OCLC, folio 60, verso
  2. An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of another planet; specifically, a sentient member of any species native to Earth.
  3. (archaic) A person who is materialistic or worldly; a worldling.

Also used as

earthling is also the alternative letter-case form of Earthling.

Synonyms of earthling

3 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

Forms of earthling

pluralearthlings
pluralEarthlings
alternative formearthling

Origin of earthling

From Middle English erthling (“farmer, ploughman”) [and other forms] (in glossaries), from Old English ierþling, eorþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”) [and other forms], from eorþe (“ground; dirt; planet Earth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”)) + -ling (suffix forming personal nouns). The English word is analysable as earth + -ling.

See Earthling.

From earth + -ling (suffix indicating a resident); earth is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”). Old English ierþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”, literally “one of the earth”) is formed from the same roots but generally did not outlive Old English; all modern uses are historical: see earthling. Compare also human, which is derived from Latin humus (“ground, soil”).

Questions about earthling

What does earthling mean?
Earthling means one who tills the earth; a farmer, a husbandman, a ploughman.
What part of speech is earthling?
Earthling is a noun.
How do you pronounce earthling?
Earthling is pronounced /ˈɜːθlɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of earthling?
The plural of earthling is earthlings.

Words near earthling in the dictionary

  1. earthlight
  2. earthlights
  3. earthlike
  4. earthliness
  5. earthlinesses
  6. earthling
  7. earthlings
  8. earthlit
  9. earthlore
  10. earthly
  11. earthly branch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earthling (page history and authors); Earthling (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-au-Earthling.ogg.

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