Gaia
UK/ˈɡaɪə/
Gaia proper noun: the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating superorganism.
Proper noun
Gaia
- The ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating superorganism.
- [page 1] As I write, two Viking spacecraft are circling our fellow planet Mars, awaiting landfall instructions from the Earth. Their mission is to search for life, or evidence of life, now or long ago. This book is also about a search for life, and the quest for Gaia is an attempt to find the...1979, J[ames] E[phraim] Lovelock, “Introductory”, in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 1 and 11
- If we are all—from the lowliest microorganism to the largest whale—a part of Gaia, then we are all potentially important to its well-being. Therefore, the ecologists who deplore the elimination of a species are not merely appealing to our sentiment. They are warning us, often without knowing it...1980 July, James E. Lovelock, “Living Planet Earth”, in Omni, volume 2, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 124, column 3
- Synonyms:
- Mother Earth
- A Greek goddess, the personification of the earth, and one of the primordial deities from whom all the others descend.
- While investigating the Greek mythology, we have found reason to suppose that Juno, Ceres, and Gaia are but three different forms of the same original tradition of a divine feminine: of whom Ceres is the Pelasgian copy, Juno the vivid and powerful Hellenic development, and Gaia the original...1858, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “Ilios. The Trojans Compared and Contrasted with the Greeks.”, in Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. … In Three Volumes, volume III, Oxford: At the University...
- A female given name inspired by Mother Earth.
Gaia meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Arabic and Persian
Gaia in Bengali
- the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating organism
- গাইয়া gaiẏa
Gaia in Malayalam
- the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating organism
- ഗെയാ geyā
Gaia in Arabic
- the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating organism
- غَايَا ḡāyā
Gaia in Persian
- the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating organism
- گایا
More languagesFewer languages
- Gaia in Thai
- ไกอา
Examples of Gaia in a sentence
- If we are all—from the lowliest microorganism to the largest whale—a part of Gaia, then we are all potentially important to its well-being.1980 July, James E. Lovelock, “Living Planet Earth”, in Omni, volume 2, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 124, column 3:
- Having recognised the Gaian phenomenon I would like to explain where I think Gaia comes from and ask for how long this Gaia phenomenon has persisted on the surface of the Earth.1988, Lynn Margulis, “Jim Lovelock’s Gaia”, in Peter Bunyard, Edward Goldsmith, editors, Gaia, the Thesis, the Mechanisms and the...
- Meanwhile, mankind is getting on with the business of turning the Earth barren; sooner or later, but more likely sooner, Gaia will shrug us off and the Earth will carry on as if we had never been.2003 September 13, Nicholas Lezard, “The importance of being wrong”, in The Guardian, retrieved 19 May 2021:
- “Gaia is a tough bitch,” he often said[…] But a few years ago[…] Lovelock became convinced that Gaia’s autopilot system[…]is seriously out of whack, derailed by pollution and deforestation.2007 November 1, Jeff Goodell, “James Lovelock, the Prophet”, in Rolling Stone:
Synonyms of Gaia
Origin of Gaia
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Γαῖᾰ (Gaîă, “Gaea, the Earth personified as a goddess”), from γαῖᾰ (gaîă, “the Earth”), probably related to γῆ (gê, “earth, land; country”). Sense 1 was coined by the British scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock (1919–2022) in his book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), at the suggestion of the British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding (1911–1993): see the quotation.
Words formed from Gaia
- Gaia-Enceladus
- gaiahuasca
- Gaia hypothesis
- gaiaism
- Gaian
- Gaianism
- Gaia Sausage
Phrases with Gaia
Words that rhyme with Gaia
Questions about Gaia
- What does Gaia mean?
- Gaia means the ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating superorganism.
- What is Gaia in Bengali?
- Gaia in Bengali is গাইয়া (gaiẏa). See Gaia meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use Gaia in a sentence?
- If we are all—from the lowliest microorganism to the largest whale—a part of Gaia, then we are all potentially important to its well-being.
- What part of speech is Gaia?
- Gaia is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Gaia?
- Gaia is pronounced /ˈɡaɪə/ (UK).
Words near Gaia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Gaia (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-us-Gaia.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Gaia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gaia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.