earthling

[ urth-ling ]
See synonyms for earthling on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an inhabitant of earth; mortal.

Origin of earthling

1
First recorded in 1585–95; earth + -ling1

Words Nearby earthling

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use earthling in a sentence

  • Aerial love is but an earthling still, It must come down for food or mortal die, And what but virtues feed it?

    The Mortal Gods and Other Plays | Olive Tilford Dargan
  • Forential had shown him pictures of female Lyrians; and this girl—but for the fact she was an earthling—would have been beautiful.

    Earth Alert! | Kris Neville
  • The normal earthling is just like you are right now: unable to use more than one sixth of his brain.

    Earth Alert! | Kris Neville
  • Come closer, earthling, the manythoughts spoke inside his head, soothingly.

    Cully | Jack Egan
  • Perhaps, he thought, he was more of an earthling than three generations of Martian heredity made likely.

    The Ambassador | Samuel Kimball Merwin

British Dictionary definitions for earthling

earthling

/ (ˈɜːθlɪŋ) /


noun
  1. (esp in poetry or science fiction) an inhabitant of the earth; human being

Origin of earthling

1
C16: from earth + ling 1

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