Word.ws English Dictionary

make the world go round

make the world go round is the alternative form of make the world go around.

Meaning of make the world go around

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

Forms of make the world go round

third-person singular presentmakes the world go round
present participlemaking the world go round
past participlemade the world go round
pastmade the world go round

Questions about make the world go round

What is make the world go round the alternative form of?
Make the world go round is the alternative form of make the world go around.

Words near make the world go round in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make the world go round (page history and authors); 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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Cite this entry: “make the world go round.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make_the_world_go_round. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.