Word.ws English Dictionary

open world

UK/ˌəʊp(ə)n ˈwɜːld//ˌoʊp(ə)n ˈwɜɹld/

open world noun: a gameworld that the player may traverse freely, rather than being restricted to certain predefined areas and quests.

Noun

open world (plural open worlds)

  1. (also, attributive) A gameworld that the player may traverse freely, rather than being restricted to certain predefined areas and quests.
    • Role-play games […] they use a closed visual world of walls or grids or open worlds across computer systems2004, Paul Grover, “Computer Games in Your Hands”, in Visual Texts (The Heinemann English Project), Port Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic.: Heinemann Harcourt Education, →ISBN, page 15
    • Open world games (sometimes referred to as "sandbox games") are one of the most popular genres of video games. They typically feature non-linear gameplay, the ability to roam the game world freely any way the player chooses, unscripted interaction with non-player characters (NPCs), and a living...2007, David Hutchinson, “Kid-friendly Grand Theft Auto”, in Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom, Westport, Conn.: Teachers Ideas Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 110

open world meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Arabic and Malay

open world in Hindi

gameworld that the player may traverse freely
खुली दुनिया khulī duniyā

open world in Tamil

gameworld that the player may traverse freely
திறந்தவுலகம் tiṟantavulakam

open world in Arabic

gameworld that the player may traverse freely
عالم مفتوح

open world in Malay

gameworld that the player may traverse freely
dunia terbuka
More languagesFewer languages
open world in Indonesian
dunia terbuka
open world in Persian
جهان باز
open world in Vietnamese
thế giới mở

Examples of open world in a sentence

  • Open world games (sometimes referred to as "sandbox games") are one of the most popular genres of video games.2007, David Hutchinson, “Kid-friendly Grand Theft Auto”, in Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom, Westport, Conn.: Teachers Ideas...
  • Because they all seem to live and act in such a huge open world, they appear to be more complex themselves.2008, Michael Nitsche, “Combining Interaction and Narrative”, in Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds, Cambridge...
  • The Saints Row games are open worlds, and many consider the Grand Theft Auto series to also be open worlds.2014, Carolyn Handler Miller, “Video Games”, in Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment, 3rd edition...
  • The second category of storytelling that coexists in GTA [Grand Theft Auto]’s open world takes the form of player-driven stories.2017, Chris Solarski, “Transitions in Open-world Games”, in Interactive Stories and Video Game Art: A Storytelling Framework for Game...

Forms of open world

pluralopen worlds

Origin of open world

From open (adjective) + world.

Words that rhyme with open world

Questions about open world

What does open world mean?
Open world means a gameworld that the player may traverse freely, rather than being restricted to certain predefined areas and quests.
What is open world in Hindi?
Open world in Hindi is खुली दुनिया (khulī duniyā). See Open world meaning in Hindi.
How do you use open world in a sentence?
Open world games (sometimes referred to as "sandbox games") are one of the most popular genres of video games.
What part of speech is open world?
Open world is a noun.
How do you pronounce open world?
Open world is pronounced /ˌəʊp(ə)n ˈwɜːld/ (UK).
What is the plural of open world?
The plural of open world is open worlds.

Words near open world in the dictionary

  1. open water
  2. open waters
  3. open weights
  4. open wheel
  5. open wide
  6. open world
  7. open worlds
  8. open wound
  9. open wounds
  10. open'd
  11. open, sesame

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: open world (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-open world.wav.

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