1
as in temporal
having to do with life on earth especially as opposed to that in heaven
scientists haven't even found all the terrestrial life on our planet
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in mundane
having to do with the practical details of regular life
let's focus on terrestrial issues—such as how to pay the bills
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of terrestrial
Without dominance in orbit, terrestrial forces would be deaf, blind, and largely immobile.
—
Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 28 July 2025
Television rights are expensive and the UK’s two biggest sports, football and cricket, hardly have any live matches on terrestrial TV these days either, save for the FA Cup and the Hundred, neither of which is positioned near the pinnacle of their respective games.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 27 July 2025
Instead of windswept fields and rugged, snowy mountains, the region’s lush, subtropical conditions of 76 million years ago provided ample resources for both terrestrial and flying dinosaurs.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 23 July 2025
This crystalline material was the first solid matter in the solar system, and was bound together by gravity to create mile-wide planetesimals, the seeds of the terrestrial planets like Earth and the cores of solar system gas giants like Jupiter.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for terrestrial
Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 28 July 2025
Television rights are expensive and the UK’s two biggest sports, football and cricket, hardly have any live matches on terrestrial TV these days either, save for the FA Cup and the Hundred, neither of which is positioned near the pinnacle of their respective games.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 27 July 2025
Instead of windswept fields and rugged, snowy mountains, the region’s lush, subtropical conditions of 76 million years ago provided ample resources for both terrestrial and flying dinosaurs.
—Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 23 July 2025
This crystalline material was the first solid matter in the solar system, and was bound together by gravity to create mile-wide planetesimals, the seeds of the terrestrial planets like Earth and the cores of solar system gas giants like Jupiter.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for terrestrial
Recent Examples of Synonyms for terrestrial
Adjective
-
Drifting between moving-image formats and collaging local textures and bygone voices, Oscar Ruiz Navia’s film reflects on loss and mourning as experiences of temporal dislocation.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
7 Aug. 2025
-
Without temporal intelligence, scale becomes noise.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
5 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
His real talent seemed to be inferring some of the more mundane details of my life.—
Webb Wright,
Scientific American,
18 Aug. 2025
-
Many people worry that AI will one day overthrow and destroy us, but many more worry about the mundane eventualities of ongoing AI integration.—
Christian Perry,
Forbes.com,
15 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Linkin Park reenters the general sales ranking at No. 85 and comes in one spot lower on the list of the top-selling physical titles.—
Hugh McIntyre,
Forbes.com,
14 Aug. 2025
-
The study demonstrates that contemporary archaeology is not about hunting for treasure, but reading signs in the sediment and understanding relationships among all the surviving physical evidence, said Daniel Diffendale, postdoctoral researcher at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Castile soap and water: This is a simple, natural option for everyday cleaning.—
Daley Quinn,
Southern Living,
14 Aug. 2025
-
In the hour-long special, filmed at the Capitol Theater in Clearwater, Florida, Larry delivers takes on everything from family life and aging to the everyday absurdities of modern living.—
Matt Grobar,
Deadline,
14 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
In 2022, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 paved the way for alternatives to animal testing, and in December 2023, an NIH advisory committee made similar recommendations to develop non-animal methods.—
Rachel Fobar,
Vox,
14 May 2025
-
Rendering is a process that transforms animal by-products, like leftover meat and fats...and yes, chicken feet, into usable materials, such as animal feed, fuel, and other industrial products.—
Phil Kafarakis,
Forbes.com,
1 May 2025
Adjective
-
It was once widely believed throughout Europe that stars produced an ethereal fluid that somehow influenced earthly affairs.—
Martha Barnette
August 6,
Literary Hub,
6 Aug. 2025
-
Because his reality emerges from fiction, Musk is untethered from any sense of earthly constraints.—
Franklin Foer,
The Atlantic,
28 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Terrestrial.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/terrestrial. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share