worldly.

1. Familiar with social life and practical affairs, sometimes with a cynical awareness of them.

2. Concerned with material possessions and ordinary earthly affairs rather than spiritual matters.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• worldly wisdom
• worldly manner

On the page

Her worldly wisdom kept the conversation from becoming naive.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more worldly; superlative most worldly when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.