earth

English Online Dictionary. What means earth‎? What does earth mean?

English

Alternative forms

• airth (chiefly Scotland)
• erd (dialect, rare)
• yearth (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”) (compare West Frisian ierde, German Low German Eerd, Dutch aarde, Dutch Low Saxon eerde, German Erde, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian jord), related to *erwô (“earth”) (compare Old High German ero, perhaps Old Norse jǫrfi), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (compare Ancient Greek *ἔρα (*éra, “earth”) in ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground, to earth”), perhaps Tocharian B yare (“gravel”).

Probably unrelated, but of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʔarṣ́- – whence Arabic أَرْض (ʔarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ (ʾereṣ) – is probably related.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɜːθ/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɝθ/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɵːθ/
• (Ghana) IPA^(key): /ɜθ/, /ɝθ/
• (Early Modern) IPA^(key): /ɛːrθ/, /ɛrθ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ

Proper noun

earth

2. Alternative letter-case form of Earth; our planet, third out from the Sun.

Usage notes

• The names of celestial bodies are usually capitalized (Earth), even when used with the.

Translations

Noun

earth (countable and uncountable, plural earths)

2. (uncountable) Soil.

3. (uncountable) Any general rock-based material.

4. The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
6. (British) A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
7. The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
8. A region of the planet; a land or country.
9. Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
10. The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
11. (metonymically) The people on the globe.
12. Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.

13. (archaic) The human body.
14. (alchemy, philosophy and Taoism) The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
15. (chemistry, obsolete) Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.

Derived terms

Related terms

• wychert
• yedding

Translations

See also

Verb

earth (third-person singular simple present earths, present participle earthing, simple past and past participle earthed)

1. (UK, transitive) To connect electrically to the earth.

   Synonym: ground

2. (transitive) To bury.
3. (transitive) To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
4. (intransitive) To burrow.

Derived terms

• earthing
• unearth

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Erath, rehat, ather-, Herta, Harte, rathe, Rathe, heart, th'are, thare, hater, Heart, Herat, Taher, Terah, Thera