the way/ways of the world

noun phrase

: how things happen or how people behave

Success comes easier for some people. That's just the way of the world.

Because he was young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, people were able to take advantage of him.

Examples of the way/ways of the world in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Mirren's character Cara, an Irish immigrant, is similarly wise to the ways of the world. —Emlyn Travis, EW.com, 12 Nov. 2022

Feudalism had been the way of the world for hundreds of years, so who could really believe that free markets and capital would take over? —Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune Europe, 11 Feb. 2024

But there’s a long way to go before skills-first is the way of the world. —Jane Thier, Fortune, 26 Jan. 2024

That’s not the way of the world — that’s selfishness and capitalism in its greediest form. —Anna Tingley, Variety, 27 Oct. 2023

All these hyperbolic and chaotic doings are portrayed as just the way of the world, and the seeming disorder of Harry’s life comes off as the natural order of things. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2023

Dutiful sons often revere their fathers for their instruction in the ways of the world—by direction and indirection, sterling example and train wreck. —Edward Kosner, WSJ, 5 May 2022

What remains out of grasp is the not knowing, the wondrous ignorance about the ways of the world. —Hazlitt, 12 Dec. 2022

His daughter wasn’t well versed in the ways of the world. —Kerry Howley, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2022