Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.
  • noun A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One's personal view of the world and how one interprets it.
  • noun The totality of one's beliefs about reality.
  • noun A general philosophy or view of life.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Translation of German Weltanschauung.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A calque of German Weltanschauung, a compound of Welt ("world") + Anschauung ("view/outlook").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word worldview.

Examples

  • In my view the biggest risk of the Sunstein worldview is that since the New Paternalism will be of the tolerable, “libertarian” kind, we will have more paternalism overall — i.e., more instances where policymakers believe they know better than individual decision-makers.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Unknown OIRA 2009

  • This difference in worldview is part of the reason that the couple fails.

    Rom-coms get a shot in the arm with “(500) Days of Summer” » Scene-Stealers 2009

  • In the book, we argued that a changing issue agenda over the past forty years - the emergence of issues like race, women's rights, sexuality and the war on terror - played an important role in driving what we described as a worldview divide.

    Jonathan Weiler: America's Personality-Based Political Divide Jonathan Weiler 2011

  • But I will say that their worldview is aggressively offensive and that a game that I might've tried is now something I won't consider because of their steadfast, intolerant stance.

    A Complex Shadow SVGL 2009

  • IOW, their worldview is an indicator of the scientific positions they'll embrace.

    Berlinski's Wisdom 2010

  • Unfortunately, we know now that much of that worldview is wrong.

    Wonk Room » The WonkLine: June 17, 2009 2009

  • Mr. CARROLL: Well, the fear that's an inch below the surface of political discourse, much of it racially tinged, the attacks on President Obama's identity, not only whether he's a Muslim but the notion that his worldview is shaped by his being Kenyan, there's a kind of an inch-below-the-surface question about whether President Obama, his character being, quote, "a real American," unquote.

    Multiculturalism Debated In The U.S. And Abroad 2010

  • But that was one of the most important part of the antiracist seminar: Deconditioning yourself from a racist worldview is Hard.

    So Now What? « Dyepot, Teapot 2009

  • For me, the second worldview is as political as the first (more so, in fact, for reasons I'll mention below).

    Barry Eisler: Fictional Politics Barry Eisler 2010

  • Complete lack of empathy for something outside their tiny worldview is exactly what makes so many scientists useless and ineffective.

    Stupid Is As Stupid Does Candid Engineer 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.