globe
Americannoun
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globes
plural
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Usually the globe the planet Earth.
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a planet or other celestial body.
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a sphere on which is depicted a map of the earth terrestrial globe or of the heavens celestial globe.
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a spherical body; sphere.
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anything more or less spherical, as a lampshade or a glass fishbowl.
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a golden ball traditionally borne as an emblem of sovereignty; orb.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
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a sphere on which a map of the world or the heavens is drawn or represented
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the world; the earth
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a planet or some other astronomical body
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an object shaped like a sphere, such as a glass lampshade or fish-bowl
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an electric light bulb
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an orb, usually of gold, symbolic of authority or sovereignty
verb
Usage
What does globe mean? The word globe most generally refers to a sphere—a ball-like shape or object. Something globe-shaped can be described as globular, which means the same thing as spherical. More specifically, a globe is a three-dimensional model of Earth. (There are also globes representing the moon and other planets, but globes of Earth are most common.) These kinds of globes are associated with their use in classrooms for the subject of geography. The phrase the globe is another way of saying the world or the planet in reference to Earth, as in His name was known in almost every corner of the globe. Example: I started my travels around the globe by spinning a globe and pointing to a random destination.
Synonym Usage
See earth.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of globe
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French globe, from Latin globus “round body, ball, sphere”
Explanation
A globe doesn't have to be a spherical representation of our planet; it can be anything shaped like one — like a soccer ball or a gumball. Referring to a round shape, globe is often used interchangeably with sphere, though sphere has another meaning of an area of particular interest or a segment of a particular population. Globe is also another name for planet Earth itself, our lovely third rock from the sun — as in "viewers are tuning in from around the globe."
Vocabulary lists containing globe
The Monroe Doctrine (1823)
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"How Do We Use Water?"
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"Mireya Mayor: Explorer/Correspondent"
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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:
To actually make them, however, Tehran had to source parts from across the globe, including Western nations as well as China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Traveling the globe for celestial events may seem downright loony—until you get a taste of the addictive world of “eclipse chasing.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Ukraine would also be relying on the same sophisticated components that are in high demand across the globe.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
However the disruption caused to global wind patterns means the impacts will ripple right across the globe.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
When Cicero writes of the orbis he sometimes means the habitable dry land, a disk rising above the waves, and sometimes the whole globe of land and ocean.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“Do you want a facility that makes snow globes or one that makes semiconductors?” asked White.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
And it came with added significance as she became the first man or woman in the history of the alpine skiing World Cup to win more than eight globes in a single event.
From Barron's ● Jan. 25, 2026
Half a world away, Japanese scientists are using shining golden globes to search for the same answers.
From BBC ● May 12, 2025
“Golden globes 2024 start to end,” she captioned the post.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2024
Part of her was itching to run to the nursery, meet the children, and begin instructing them immediately in Latin verbs and the correct use of globes.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Art Deco touches inform outdoor marquees, globed chandeliers, and vintage Audubon wallpaper is glinting with pink birds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2024
The Peter Kiewit Foundation no longer is funding the maintenance of Abbott Drive, which includes the so-called String of Pearls - globed lights that line a stretch of the thoroughfare.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 10, 2019
Donors have long paid for the so-called String of Pearls entrance, which features globed lights that line a stretch of Abbott Drive.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 10, 2018
A branch bounces, and out pops a Titi monkey with black, globed eyes and a pewter-colored beard.
From Time Magazine Archive
Soft, salty bread and white cheese, slices of spiced meat, and quarters of some big, globed fruit that tasted of sugared rain.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
I seemed conscious only of a shaft of light, as it were, traversing the darkness and globing itself in a steady disc of radiance on a lonely door.
From At a Winter's Fire by Bernard Edward Joseph Capes
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.
