New World

American  

noun

1. the Americas and Oceania, especially when regarded collectively as the inhabited landmasses of the world that became known to Europe after its discovery of the Americas.

2. Western Hemisphere.

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New World British  

noun

1. the Americas; the western hemisphere

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New World Cultural  

1. A name for the Americas, especially during the time of first exploration and colonization of the Americas by Europeans. (Compare Old World.)

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Etymology

Origin of New World

First recorded in 1545–50

Example Sentences

But in doing so he has reopened a fierce debate over the colonisation of the New World.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

Only the practical rationality and moral rootedness of the New World can redeem the old.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Nonnative livestock — not just horses and cows but also donkeys, pigs and sheep — thrived in the vast grasslands, plains and deserts of the New World.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

By 1854, Cuba was one of Spain’s few remaining New World colonies, and Southern expansionists coveted it—and its lucrative sugar plantations—as a new U.S. slave state.

From Barron's • Jan. 18, 2026

For the New World as a whole, the Indian population decline in the century or two following Columbus’s arrival is estimated to have been as large as 95 percent.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond