down-to-earth

[ doun-too-urth, -tuh- ]
See synonyms for down-to-earth on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. practical and realistic: a down-to-earth person.

Origin of down-to-earth

1
First recorded in 1925–30

Other words for down-to-earth

Words Nearby down-to-earth

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use down-to-earth in a sentence

  • It was a down-to-earth hot dog with no mystery, no eerieness about it, for which he was grateful.

    The Blue Ghost Mystery | Harold Leland Goodwin
  • Hilliard, the dynamic, down-to-earth leader had taken his place.

    The Year When Stardust Fell | Raymond F. Jones
  • So I was half-thinking of getting the lady at the apartment to give Willy a real down-to-earth tumble when he started his spiel.

    The Animated Pinup | Lewis Parker
  • Did his down-to-earth touch account for Updraft's surprising audience appeal?

    The Mind Digger | Winston Marks

British Dictionary definitions for down-to-earth

down-to-earth

adjective
  1. sensible; practical; realistic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with down-to-earth

down-to-earth

Back to reality. For example, It's time the employees were brought down to earth concerning the budget. P.G. Wodehouse had this idiom in Very Good, Jeeves! (1930): “I had for some little time been living . . . in another world. I now came down to earth with a bang.” [Late 1920s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.