Word.ws English Dictionary

worldbuilding

worldbuilding noun: the conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.

Noun

worldbuilding (uncountable)

  1. The conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.
    • The purpose of worldbuilding isn't just to do a cool exercise, but to give a sense of place — and all of your thought experiments absolutely have to result in something vivid and alive.2013 February 8, Charlie Jane Anders, “7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding”, in io9, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2016
    • High fantasy of the George RR Martin kind hinges on world-building. When there really is a whole world to build, and not just a historical period or a particular country, world-building does not take a few paragraphs in a short story; it takes chapters.2015 May 20, Natasha Pulley, “Fantasy cannot build its imaginary worlds in short fiction”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. (obsolete) Scientific research into the creation of the Earth and its geological features.
  3. (obsolete) The world of imagination of novelists, poets, etc.

worldbuilding meaning in Tagalog

worldbuilding in Tagalog

act or process of building of a fictional world
paggawa ng daigdig

Synonyms of worldbuilding

Forms of worldbuilding

alternative formworld-building
alternative formworld building

Origin of worldbuilding

From world + building.

Questions about worldbuilding

What does worldbuilding mean?
Worldbuilding means the conception and description of a fictional world, often as the setting of a work of fiction, particularly in speculative fiction.
What is worldbuilding in Tagalog?
Worldbuilding in Tagalog is paggawa ng daigdig. See Worldbuilding meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding is a noun.

Words near worldbuilding in the dictionary

  1. worldbeating
  2. worldbound
  3. worldbreaking
  4. worldbuilder
  5. worldbuilders
  6. worldbuilding
  7. worlde
  8. worlded
  9. worlder
  10. worlders
  11. worldes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worldbuilding (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: “worldbuilding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/worldbuilding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.