Word.ws English Dictionary

worldlywise

worldlywise is the alternative spelling of worldly-wise.

Meaning of worldly-wise

Adjective

worldly-wise (comparative more worldly-wise, superlative most worldly-wise)

  1. Experienced in the ways of the world; sophisticated and cosmopolitan.
    • I had a natural African American impulse to let this worldlywise middle-aged black woman's maternalism wash over me. And as a post-civil rights African American, I assumed that it was a white audience's job to follow suit.2014 May 28, John McWhorter, “Saint Maya”, in The New Republic, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    worldwise

Forms of worldlywise

comparativemore worldlywise
superlativemost worldlywise

Questions about worldlywise

What is worldlywise the alternative spelling of?
Worldlywise is the alternative spelling of worldly-wise.

Words near worldlywise in the dictionary

  1. worldling
  2. worldlings
  3. worldly
  4. worldly wise
  5. worldly-wise
  6. worldlywise
  7. worldmaker
  8. worldmakers
  9. worldmaking
  10. worldmate
  11. worldmates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worldlywise (page history and authors); worldly-wise (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: “worldlywise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/worldlywise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.