How to Use world-building in a Sentence

world-building

noun
Definition of world-buildingnext
  • That kind of world-building appealed to him more than the story of this kid who becomes a god.
    — WIRED, 19 Sep. 2023
  • That is the beauty of Barbie Land logic and world-building.
    — André-Naquian Wheeler, Vogue, 20 July 2023
  • People certainly aren’t looking for the next Game of Thrones or the next world-building show.
    — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Nov. 2023
  • In this deep dive into world-building, we’re thrust 300 years into the future.
    — Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 25 Jan. 2024
  • Elsewhere in the interview, Elliott discussed some of the plans for world-building in this next film.
    — Charlotte Phillipp, Peoplemag, 22 Apr. 2024
  • Billion-dollar world-building aside, The Rings of Power plods.
    — TIME, 7 Feb. 2024
  • This Easter egg is Lynchian world-building at its best.
    — Max Evry, WIRED, 10 Jan. 2024
  • The elaborate world-building and precinct plot yielded a timeless film that would be studied and enjoyed for decades to come.
    — Jordan Runtagh, Peoplemag, 31 Mar. 2024
  • Like all world-building for the big screen, recreating the Bridgerton universe based on Julia Quinn’s novels is no small feat.
    — Rachel Silva, ELLE Decor, 8 Sep. 2023
  • The visuals the group puts out—the single shot, world-building videos—are clearly a central part of their identity, but the music stands on its own as well.
    — Liam Hess, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2023
  • Again, in between the firefights, there is also a lot of immersive world-building and bickering with a robot who has a heart of gold.
    — Adrienne So, WIRED, 30 Jan. 2024
  • The books are epic in every sense of the word, from their incredible world-building to an extensive cast of characters.
    — Milan Polk, Men's Health, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Despite this mild glitch, the Tokyo example is a mind-blowing exercise in world-building.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 15 Feb. 2024
  • With a new Hellraiser reboot available to stream on Hulu, this is your chance to glory over the gloom, gore, and arch world-building of the original 1987 British horror film.
    — EW.com, 19 Dec. 2023
  • Old-money aesthetic is not complete without the requisite world-building: the yacht, the Dom Pérignon, the Lake Como backdrop.
    — Sarah Spellings, Vogue, 12 Dec. 2023
  • Will the fanboys go for all this elaborate world-building, inevitably leading to a deadly faceoff on the insurgents’ way home to Veldt?
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Dec. 2023
  • Moving on from the monograph, the next step for me in world-building was to develop specific spaces and attach a narrative to each one.
    — Alessia Glaviano, Vogue, 4 Jan. 2024
  • Her world No longer tied to the adolescent narratives of her earlier career, Swift also had a new task at hand: world-building.
    — Raisa Bruner, TIME, 26 Oct. 2023
  • The rapper’s presence with the French fashion house will be a door opener for world-building with diverse cultural influences of the rapper and the classic structures of the brand.
    — Kerane Marcellus, Essence, 9 July 2024
  • Layered and vivid, world-building was the key to its magnetism, and that's what originally captivated me.
    — Jason Parham, WIRED, 31 Aug. 2023
  • Since its release, the film has been heralded for its feminist message and its creative world-building.
    — Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 7 Aug. 2023
  • The books, in which Earth is faced with an alien invasion, told an epic, high-stakes story with intricate world-building, time-jumping and powerful themes.
    — Wendy Lee, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
  • Fury Road’s blunt, head-on narrative has given way to a more episodic structure and an emphasis, much like that in the Dune franchise, on immense world-building.
    — Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 24 May 2024
  • As overwrought as the phrase is becoming, cutting through today’s DSP congestion is a matter of world-building.
    — Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 30 June 2023
  • Looks to be an interesting stew of cowboy action, robot mayhem, and kooky world-building.
    — Vogue, 21 Mar. 2024
  • While the detail and world-building of the 2021 Dune definitely benefited from a longer runtime, there’s no denying that Denis Villeneuve’s film just kind of … ends.
    — Vulture, 14 June 2023
  • As more and more of these films become cogs in a multiverse, their imaginative appeal tends to get trampled by the dictates of corporate world-building.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 Aug. 2023
  • With its fun characters, vault and timeline mysteries, intricate world-building and video-game Easter eggs, there's a lot to think about — and even better, discuss with friends.
    — USA TODAY, 18 Apr. 2024
  • The protagonists and namesake of the half-hour series on FX were thousands of miles from home, a testament to the flexible, expansive world-building of co-creator Sterlin Harjo and his team.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Millie’s relentless world-building is not just a defense mechanism, but a valiant attempt to live otherwise.
    — Beatrice Loayza, The Atlantic, 15 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'world-building.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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