Fourth World

American  

noun

1. the world's most poverty-stricken nations, especially in Africa and Asia, marked by very low GNP per capita and great dependence upon foreign economic aid.

---

Fourth World British  

noun

1. the poorest countries in the most undeveloped parts of the world in Africa, Asia, and Latin America

2. the poorest people in developed countries

---

Etymology

Origin of Fourth World

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

The 1995 work of what was officially called the U.N.’s Fourth World Conference on Women is considered a signal moment in women’s rights.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 29, 2020

The 1995 work of what was officially called the U.N.’s Fourth World Conference on Women is considered a signal moment in women’s rights.

From Washington Times • Sep. 29, 2020

Kirby’s work often played with pagan mythologies or made up new pantheons, but the Fourth World might be his most Judeo-Christian work, as Tom King learned when working on “Mister Miracle.”

From Salon • Aug. 18, 2017

Clinton famously declared “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights” when she spoke at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing, in 1995.

From The New Yorker • Sep. 23, 2015

The sheet of ice melted, and everyone crawled into the hole that would lead them to the glittering walls of the Fourth World, wherein we, their descendants, now reside.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young