brave new world

noun

A better, often utopian (future) world.

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Meanings

nounbrave new world (plural brave new worlds)

plural brave new worlds

  1. A better, often utopian (future) world.

    O wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there heere? / How beauteous mankinde is? O braue new world / That has ſuch people in't.

    1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 17
    1 more example

    Will digital broadcasting, 'mega-channel-land', change everything or nothing? Will it be a brave new world, or simply more of the same?

    1999, Helen Kelly-Holmes, European Television Discourse in Transition, →ISBN, page 6
  2. A terrible, often oppressive or dystopian world.

    In this brave new world, the IMF and other Western financial institutions dictated radical free trade "shock treatment" to both developing nations and the former USSR ...

    2005, Will Watson, “The Ethics of Living American Primacy”, in Allan Eickelman et al., editors, Justice and Violence: Political Violence, Pacifism and Cultural Transformation, →ISBN, page 103

Origin

From the title of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World, itself a reference to a line from The Tempest (1610), see quotations.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Danish fagre nye verden
  • fagre nye verdenambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
French meilleur des mondes
  • meilleur des mondesambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
Greek θαυμαστός καινούργιος κόσμος
  • θαυμαστός καινούργιος κόσμος (thavmastós kainoúrgios kósmos)ambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
Hungarian szép új világ
  • szép új világambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
Portuguese admirável mundo novo
  • admirável mundo novoambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
Russian ди́вный но́вый ми́р
  • ди́вный но́вый ми́р (dívnyj nóvyj mír)ambitious, often utopian, vision of the future
Cite this entry
APA

brave new world. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brave%20new%20world

MLA

“brave new world.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brave%20new%20world. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brave new world,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brave%20new%20world.

Source: brave new world on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.