universe

Noun

universe (plural universes)

1. The sum of everything that exists in the cosmos, including time and space itself; same as the Universe.
2. An entity similar to our Universe; one component of a larger entity known as the multiverse.
3. Everything under consideration.

   In all this universe of possibilities, there is only one feasible option.

4. An imaginary collection of worlds.

   The universe in this comic book series is richly imagined.

5. Intense form of world in the sense of perspective or social setting.

   That didn’t just rock my world, it rocked my universe.

Derived terms

• clockwork universe
• known universe
• observable universe
• universe of discourse

Related terms

• universal
• universal set
• university

The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all physical matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space, although this usage may differ with the context (see definitions, below). The term universe may be used in slightly different contextual senses, denoting such concepts as the cosmos, the world, or nature.

Observations of earlier stages in the development of the universe, which can be seen at great distances, suggest that the universe has been governed by the same physical laws and constants throughout most of its extent and history.

The universe is often used as a blanket term for quite literally everything that exists. In strictly physical terms, the total universe is the sum of all matter that exists and the space in which all events occur or could occur.

Sourced

• What blessedness it is to dwell amidst this transparent air, which the eye can pierce without limit, amidst these floods of pure, soft, cheering light, under this immeasurable arch of heaven, and in sight of these countless stars! An infinite universe is each moment opened to our view. And this universe is the sign and symbol of Infinite Power, Intelligence, Purity, Bliss, and Love.
  • William Ellery Channing, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 610.

• All things are connected with all things throughout the universe, from the insect to the archangel; from the sand-grain to the mountain and the globe; from the dew-drop to the ocean; from the rain-drop to the rainbow; from the pebble on the shore to 'the sun that blazes in the firmament; from the zephyr that sings among the flowers of the field to the ocean that pours its wild bass in the great anthem of nature. Not only are all things connected with all things, but there is a concatenation of events, so that the character and effects of no one event can terminate in itself. As each event owes some portion of its nature to that which preceded it, so it imparts some of its nature to that which succeeds it, and thus perpetuates the blended good or evil of itself and its predecessors. The single event may thus live on in its influence along the line of all the ages, assuming new shapes, or if clothing itself in the drapery of new events, ever marching onward and upward in the continually growing affairs of time.
  • John Lanahan, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 611.