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earth

Pronunciation: /ɜːθ/

The English word “earth” has 17 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Soil.
  2. Any general rock-based material.
  3. The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
  4. A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
  5. The lair or den (as a hole in the ground, or a system of tunnels) of an animal, such as a badger.
  6. A region of the planet; a land or country.
  7. Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
  8. The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
  9. The people on the globe.
  10. Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.
  11. The human body.
  12. The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
  13. Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.

verb

  1. To connect electrically to the earth.
  2. To bury.
  3. To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
  4. To burrow.

Etymology

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁érteh₂ (“earth”). Cognates Cognate with Scots erd, yerd, yird, yirth (“earth, loam, mould, soil; ground”), Yola eard, eart, eord, eorth, erth (“earth”), North Frisian eerd, eerde, iarde, Iart, iir, jard, örd, Öört (“earth; world”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.