different between wordwise vs worldwise

English

Etymology

From word +? -wise.

Adjective

wordwise (not comparable)

1. Of or characteristic of a word or words; verbal.
   • 1995, American Psychological Association, Psychological abstracts:

     Wordwise feedback produced significantly higher gains than listwise.

   • 2006, Wolfgang Wahlster, SmartKom: foundations of multimodal dialogue systems:

     Both the wordwise and sentencewise results are computed (in %) applied for the user state recognition in our case due to the construction of […]

2. (computing) In terms of words (fixed groups of binary digits); one word of data at a time.

   Coordinate terms: bitwise, bytewise

Adverb

wordwise (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to, concerning, or regarding words; verbally.
   • 2005, Charles Harrington Elster, What in the word?:

     Turn the page and get an edge in wordwise.

2. (computing) In terms of words (fixed groups of binary digits); one word of data at a time.

Anagrams

• widowers

English

Alternative forms

• world-wise

Etymology

From Middle English worldwis, from Old English woruldw?s (“worldwise, worldly-wise, learned”), equivalent to world +? wise.

Adjective

worldwise (comparative more worldwise, superlative most worldwise)

1. Knowledgeable about the world; worldly-wise; sophisticated; experienced.
   • 1671, Daniel Cable (translator), Of Natural and Supernatural Things by Basilius Valentinus, London: Moses Pitt, Chapter 3, p. 50,^[1]

     Those who are highly conceited, illuminated, and world-wise, hate, envy, scandalize, defame and persecute this Mystery to the utmost Rind, or innermost Kernel, which hath its beginning out of the Center […]

   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1909, Chapter 12, p. 141,^[2]

     An older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by her varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resentment at all constraint and authority.

   • 1919, Saki, “The Purple of the Balkan Kings” in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, p. 281,^[3]

     Luttpold Wolkenstein, financier and diplomat on a small, obtrusive, self-important scale, sat in his favoured café in the world-wise Habsburg capital, confronted with the Neue Freie Presse and the cup of cream-topped coffee and attendant glass of water that a sleek-headed piccolo had just brought him.

   • 1994, U.S. News & World Report,

     Experience that’s worldwide and worldwise. It’s a difference that’s helped us make friends with a world full of travelers.

Derived terms

• worldwisdom