globe

See also: Globe and glóbe

English

A globe.
A freestanding globe.

Etymology

Etymology tree
Latin globusbor.
Middle French globeder.
Middle English globe
English globe

    From late Middle English globe, from Middle French globe, from Old French globe, borrowed from Latin globus. Doublet of globus.

    Pronunciation

    • (UK) IPA(key): /ɡləʊb/
    • (US) IPA(key): /ɡloʊb/
    • (Scotland) IPA(key): /ɡloːb/
    • Audio (Australia):(file)
    • Rhymes: -əʊb

    Noun

    globe (plural globes)

    1. Any spherical (or nearly spherical) object.
      2. (medicine) The eyeball.
        Synonyms: (medical) globus, eyeglobe, bulbus oculi, bulbus
      3. A spherical model of Earth or of another planet.
      4. A part of a device, often a lamp.
        the globe of a lamp
    2. (dated or Australia, South Africa) A light bulb.
      • 1920, Southern Pacific Company, Southern Pacific bulletin: volumes 9-10, page 26:
        Don't ask for a new globe just because the old one needs dusting. The old-style carbon lamps wasted electricity when they began to fade and it was economy to replace them.
    3. A circular military formation used in Ancient Rome, corresponding to the modern infantry square.
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
        Him round / A globe of fiery seraphim enclosed.
    4. (slang, quite uncommon, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast or buttock, whichever is more prominent.
      • 2015 January 15, Paige Reddinger, “The Golden Globes 2015: A Full Tapis Rouge Rundown”, in Fashion Week Daily‎[1], archived from the original on 22 July 2019:
        Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez went with her favorite silhouette: a robe-like dress, barely fastened solely in the areas you actually can’t reveal on the red carpet (remember that famous Versace number at the Grammys?). This year, she wore a silver and cream Zuhair Murad that showed off all of her best assets, which even caused Jeremy Renner to blurt out a comment about her “globes” on stage.
      • 2016 January 11, Caitlin O’Toole, “'I got my wig out and my globes': Katy Perry wears big hair and a VERY low-cut pink dress on red carpet”, in Daily Mail‎[2], London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 April 2026:
        'I got my wig out and my globes,' she joked to E! News host Ryan Seacrest, adjusting her breasts.
    5. (obsolete) A group.
    6. A land snail of the genus Mesodon.

    Derived terms

    Translations

    Proper noun

    the globe

    2. Alternative letter-case form of Globe (“the earth”)
      They aspired to circumaviate the globe.
      • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
        Already Cæſar
        Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees
        Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword:
        Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting
        To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.
      • 1866, John Locke, A System of Theology:
        But whatever opinion or theory may be formed by any one, all agree that at some period or other this world has been destroyed by water, and that the proofs of this assertion are found in every part of the globe
      • 1914 February 28, Henry Woodhouse, “Girdling the Globe by Motor-Driven Aircraft”, in Collier's‎[3], volume 52, number 24, page 13:
        "Around the World in Eighty Days" once had so much appeal to the imagination that Jules Verne wrote a novel about it. The latest proposal is to girdle the globe in three months in a flying machine. The practicability of such a flight is here discussed by an expert. Mr. Woodhouse is a member of the Aero Club of America and managing editor of "Flying". ¶ When the Aero Club of America received the news that the Panama-Pacific International Exposition had decided to offer $300,000 in prize money for a ninety-day aircraft race around the world, no one connected with aeronautics laughed at the conception or called it the dream of a Verne or a Wells. A map of the course of the race indicates that to circumaviate the globe will mean flights over mountains and deserts, through storms, and across seas. But formidable obstacles in all of these classifications have been surmounted before by airmen, and, of course, can be surmounted again.
      • 1925 April, Will H. Hays, “Aerial Navigation: A Forceful Aid in Peaceful Commerce”, in Commerce Journal‎[4], volume 5, number 5, page 5:
        American built planes and engines penetrated into the Alaskan wilderness at a time when such an overland flight was a marvel of ground organization and daring in the air. An American built plane and engine spanned the continent from dawn to dusk, flying at a speed averaging 160 miles an hour. American engineers and American mechanics designed and constructed the Shenandoah, demonstrating that the rigid aircraft monopoly which had been held by Germany was broken. Americans with equipment completely American were the first to circumaviate the globe—Douglas planes from Santa Monica. Nothing has been finer than this achievement, aided by the splendid sportsmanship of other nationals in cooperating to make the flight a success.
      • 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[5], volume 189, number 6, archived from the original on 1 January 2026, page 18:
        Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

    Translations

    Verb

    globe (third-person singular simple present globes, present participle globing, simple past and past participle globed)

    1. (intransitive) To become spherical.
    2. (transitive) To make spherical.

    Anagrams

    Danish

    Etymology

    From French globe, from Latin globus (“sphere, globe”).

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /ɡloːbə/, [ˈɡ̊loːb̥ə]

    Noun

    globe c (singular definite globen, plural indefinite glober)

    1. globe

    Inflection

    Declension of globe
    common
    gender     		singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative globe globen glober globerne
    genitive globes globens globers globernes

    Synonyms

    Derived terms

    French

    Etymology

    Inherited from Middle French globe, borrowed from Latin globus.

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    globe m (plural globes)

    1. globe

    Derived terms

    Further reading

    Indonesian

    Etymology

    Borrowed from Dutch globe, from Middle French globe, from Old French globe, from Latin globus. Doublet of globus.

    Pronunciation

    • (Standard Indonesian) IPA(key): /ˈɡlobə/ [ˈɡlo.bə]
    • Rhymes: -obə
    • Syllabification: glo‧be

    Noun

    globê (plural globe-globe)

    1. (uncommon) globe
      Synonym: bola dunia

    Further reading

    Latin

    Noun

    globe

    1. vocative singular of globus

    Middle French

    Etymology

      Borrowed from Latin globus.

      Noun

      globe m (plural globes)

      1. roll (of paper, etc.)
      2. globe (sphere showing a representation of the Earth)

      Descendants

      • → English: globe
      • French: globe

      References

      Serbo-Croatian

      Noun

      globe (Cyrillic spelling глобе)

      1. inflection of globa:
        1. genitive singular
        2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

      Verb

      globe (Cyrillic spelling глобе)

      1. third-person plural present of globiti
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