adjective
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of or characteristic of the earth as opposed to heaven; material or materialistic; worldly
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informal (usually used with a negative) conceivable or possible; feasible (in such phrases as not an earthly ( chance ), etc)
Synonym Usage
Earthly, terrestrial, worldly, mundane refer to that which is concerned with the earth literally or figuratively. Earthly now almost always implies a contrast to that which is heavenly: earthly pleasures; our earthly home. Terrestrial, from Latin, is the dignified equivalent of earthly, and it applies to the earth as a planet or to the land as opposed to the water: the terrestrial globe; terrestrial areas. Worldly is commonly used in the sense of being devoted to the vanities, cares, advantages, or gains of this present life to the exclusion of spiritual interests or the life to come: worldly success; worldly standards. Mundane, from Latin, is a formal equivalent of worldly and suggests that which is bound to the earth, is not exalted, and therefore is commonplace: mundane pursuits.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of earthly
First recorded before 1000; Middle English erth(e)ly, Old English eorthlīc. See earth, -ly
Explanation
If you believe in an afterlife, you probably realize that making lots of money is only an earthly concern, and not something that matters in heaven. Religious believers make the distinction between earthly problems and things that are far more important in the long term. Usually, these earthly worries have to do with material things, like jobs, money, cars, and houses — rather than spiritual concerns like love, faith, and beauty. The word earth is at the root of earthly, and you can think of it as "things that only matter to humans on the Earth."
Vocabulary lists containing earthly
Obama's speech at Connecticut vigil
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It may feel like a medical miracle, but there’s a more earthly explanation.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
The new season will get around to that question, though the alien and earthly plot lines are kept on separate tracks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Erika Kirk was standing center stage in a hotel ballroom, explaining the difference between earthly pleasures and heavenly joy, when a heckler interrupted her remarks to shout incendiaries at her.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Scott-Heron’s lunar criticism is not so much concerned with the otherworldly as a space for imagining the earthly impossible, but for assembling earthly sites of decolonization and liberation.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2026
As soon as they took the body out, Rebeca closed the doors of her house and buried herself alive, covered with a thick crust of disdain that no earthly temptation was ever able to break.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Tempest, Act V. "But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd."
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold
But first, to penetrate this barrier, the soul with which you listen must be sharpened by intense enthusiasm, purified from all earthlier desires.
From Zanoni by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Her heart exulted, while it trembled, at his honorable love—so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had dreamed of.
From Mosses from an Old Manse and other stories by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The further she rises from earth, even in the earthlier aspects of love, the fairer she becomes for me.
From The Magic Skin by Marriage, Ellen
Venus near her! smiling downwards at this earthlier earth of ours, Closer on the sun, perhaps a world of never fading flowers.
From Astronomical Curiosities Facts and Fallacies by Gore, J. Ellard
But the moon still revolveth around all that is earthly: so revolveth also the prince around what is earthliest of all—that, however, is the gold of the shopman.
From Thus Spake Zarathustra A book for all and none by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
