down-to-earth
[ doun-too-urth, -tuh- ]
/ ˈdaʊn tuˈɜrθ, -tə- /
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adjective
practical and realistic: a down-to-earth person.
OTHER WORDS FOR down-to-earth
QUIZ
QUIZ YOURSELF ON "WAS" VS. "WERE"!
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“Was” is used for the indicative past tense of “to be,” and “were” is only used for the subjunctive past tense.
Origin of down-to-earth
First recorded in 1925–30
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
How to use down-to-earth in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for down-to-earth
down-to-earth
adjective
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]
Also, down-to-earth. Realistic or interested in everyday occurrences, as in She is a very down-to-earth person, not at all involved with the glamour of Hollywood. [1930s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.