universe

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   everything that exists anywhere

   they study the evolution of the universe

2. 2
   noun

   The sum of everything that exists in the cosmos.

   Do you think that the universe was created by a life force or a deity?

3. 3
   noun

   Everything under consideration.

   In all this universe of possibilities, there is only one feasible option.

4. 4
   noun

   An imaginary collection of worlds; the general imaginary world within which a work of fiction takes place, broader than its immediate setting.

   The universe in this comic book series is richly imagined.

5. 5
   noun

   A whole world, in the sense of perspective or social setting.

   That didn’t just rock my world, it rocked my universe.

6. 6
   noun

   A deity who is equivalent to the sum of everything that exists in the cosmos.

   The universe wants you to succeed.

7. 7
   noun

   The Earth, the sphere of the world.

   Under our new World may alſo be compriſed thoſe vaſt Southern Coaſts and Streights of Magelan, firſt lighted on by Ferdinandus Magelanus in the year 1520, in his Circumnavigation of the Univerſe ; which forty five years after Sir Francis Drake, and next Sir Thomas Bendiſh, Engliſhmen, made a furhter inſpection into ; and in the Year 1600 Oliver van Noord a Hollander paſt, but of later years a Spaniard, Fedinand de Quier, out-ſhot them all by a more ample Diſcovery then all the former.

8. 8
   name

   Our universe, the sum of everything that exists in the cosmos, including time and space itself.

   Powerful telescopes look far back into the distant reaches of the Universe.

Etymology

From Middle English universe, from Old French univers, from Latin universum (“all things, as a whole, the universe”), neuter of universus (“all together, whole, entire, collective, general, literally turned or combined into one”), from uni-, combining form of unus (“one”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of vertō (“to turn”). Analyzable as uni- + -verse through backformation of -verse.