Word.ws English Dictionary

under the sun

under the sun prepositional phrase: in existence.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In existence.
    • Meronym: sublunary
    • I returned, and saw vnder the Sunne, That the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of vnderstanding, nor yet fauour to men of skil; but time and chance happeneth to them all.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 9:11

under the sun meaning in Kannada and Vietnamese

under the sun in Kannada

ಭೂಮಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ, ಪ್ರಪಂಚದಲ್ಲಿ

under the sun in Vietnamese

in existence
trên đời

Examples of under the sun in a sentence

  • He was a most likeable and generous man, a Whitworth Scholar, and possessed of a fund of knowledge which seemed to cover every subject under the sun.1945 January and February, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 14:
  • I have also adopted a stance, familiar from consumer culture, which suggests that the goods under question can do anything under the sun.2005, Hazel Smith, The writing experiment: strategies for innovative creative writing:
  • Despite winning every award under the sun and being critically acclaimed + beloved, Schitt's Creek didn't become household-name-levels of popular until its last few seasons.2024 September 16, Mehera Bonner, “Wondering What Dan Levy Is Making for Hosting the 2024 Emmys? Here's a Deep Dive on His Net Worth!”, in...

Origin of under the sun

From Middle English under þe sonne, under þe sunne (compare Old English under sunnan), a calque of Hebrew תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ (táchat hashémesh). The phrase has been associated with the book of Ecclesiastes ever since appearing 29 times in the translation to English by John Wycliffe https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Under+the+sun&version=WYC

Questions about under the sun

What does under the sun mean?
Under the sun means in existence.
What is under the sun in Kannada?
Under the sun in Kannada is ಭೂಮಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ, ಪ್ರಪಂಚದಲ್ಲಿ. See Under the sun meaning in Kannada.
How do you use under the sun in a sentence?
He was a most likeable and generous man, a Whitworth Scholar, and possessed of a fund of knowledge which seemed to cover every subject under the sun.
What part of speech is under the sun?
Under the sun is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the sun in the dictionary

  1. under the saya
  2. under the sayas
  3. under the sheets
  4. under the spotlight
  5. under the stars
  6. under the sun
  7. under the surface
  8. under the table
  9. under the weather
  10. under the wire
  11. under the yoke

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the sun (page history and authors); under the sun (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-under the sun.ogg.

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