The English word world comes from the Old English weorold (-uld), weorld, worold (-uld, -eld), a compound of wer 'man' and eld 'age,' which thus means roughly 'Age of Man.' The Old English is a reflex of the Common Germanic *wira-alđiz, also reflected in Old Saxon werold, Old Dutch werilt, Old High German weralt, Old Frisian warld and Old Norse verǫld (whence the Icelandic veröld). Terms such as 'world championship', 'gross world product', and 'world flags' imply the sum or combination of all sovereign states. The world population is the sum of all human populations at any time similarly, the world economy is the sum of the economies of all societies or countries, especially in the context of globalization. In terms such as world religion, world language, world government, and world war, the term world suggests an international or intercontinental scope without necessarily implying participation of every part of the world. The history of the world is commonly understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia, from the first civilizations to the present. 'End of the world' scenarios refer to the end of human history, often in religious contexts. In a theological context, the world is the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred spheres. In a philosophical context, the 'world' is the whole of the physical Universe, or an ontological world (the 'world' of an individual). The world is the planet Earth and all life upon it, including human civilization.

Google earth map of world