worlds apart
9
4.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
muy diferentes
- The shrinking Anglo population lives a world apart from the growing, youthful Latino community.
- yet worlds apart
It's actually a world apart in terms of its effects.
- It's actually a world apart in terms of its effects.
Examples
-
Yet that is exactly what she is: a world apart, the exception, not the rule.
Blog text (23) -
Only seventeen miles south of downtown San Diego, yet worlds apart, Tijuana sparkles.
Academic text (2001) -
Oh wow, that is a world apart from what it was before.
-
Despite being only about 2 miles from the old downtown, this is a world apart.
Academic text (1998) -
We were not that far off in age from our students, and yet we were worlds apart.
Academic text (2005) -
Most teenagers live in a world apart from the actual world.
Blog text (11) -
Your marriage and mine, your era and mine were worlds apart.
-
You and I were two halves, a world apart.
-
Despite their equivalent and even conjoined celebrity, The Gleaners and The Angelus are thematically worlds apart, offering widely divergent portrayals of mid-nineteenth-century French rural life.
Academic text (2003) -
Living in a small town and in a big city can feel worlds apart, as their lifestyles are so different.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Not the same as another person or thing
76
3.5
Not closely related or connected, for example a relative far away
37
7.9
Different in type so they cannot be easily compared
20
6.8
Very different in life, feeling, or situation
17
3.8
Different in appearance or nature
11
7.7
So different that people cannot agree
1
5.6
Very different from each other in every way
Very different from each other in important ways
Antonyms
How Different
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'extremely different' is signalled transparently by 'apart' (at a distance) combined with 'worlds' used metaphorically to indicate very large separation, so a B1 learner who knows both words can plausibly infer the sense. Because the expression relies on a metaphorical pluralization (worlds = distinct spheres) rather than strictly literal composition, it is not wholly compositional and is best classified as partially predictable.
Etymology
The expression worlds apart paints the picture of two worlds very far apart, like different planets with no way to meet. That's why it means 'extremely different' or having 'no common ground'.