Word.ws English Dictionary

make the world go around

make the world go around verb: to play an essential role in causing the things in life to work as they should; to underlie the fulfillment of the needs of human existence.

Verb

make the world go around (third-person singular simple present makes the world go around, present participle making the world go around, simple past and past participle made the world go around)

  1. (idiomatic) To play an essential role in causing the things in life to work as they should; to underlie the fulfillment of the needs of human existence.
    • "But say, Jeff, it's said that love makes the world go around. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. . . . Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man's starving!"1907, O. Henry, “Cupid á la carte”, in Heart of the West
    • Gabriele Salvatores's "Mediterraneo" is a deliberately charming comedy whose most daring conceit is that love, in one form and another, makes the world go around.1992 March 22, Vincent Canby, “Review/Film Festival: Roundelay Of Love On an Isle In Wartime”, in New York Times, retrieved 05 Oct 2015

Forms of make the world go around

third-person singular presentmakes the world go around
present participlemaking the world go around
past participlemade the world go around
pastmade the world go around
alternative formmake the world go round
alternative formmake this world go around

Questions about make the world go around

What does make the world go around mean?
Make the world go around means to play an essential role in causing the things in life to work as they should; to underlie the fulfillment of the needs of human existence.
What part of speech is make the world go around?
Make the world go around is a verb.
What is the past tense of make the world go around?
The past tense of make the world go around is made the world go around.

Words near make the world go around in the dictionary

  1. make the road shorter
  2. make the rounds
  3. make the running
  4. make the weather
  5. make the welkin ring
  6. make the world go around
  7. make the world go round
  8. make the wrong turn at Albuquerque
  9. make things interesting
  10. make this world go around
  11. make this world go round

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make the world go around (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-make the world go around.ogg.

Cite this entry: “make the world go around.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_the_world_go_around. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.