global village

noun

The world as a single community of interdependent inhabitants who are interconnected by contemporary technology, especially television and the World Wide Web.

Meanings

nounglobal village (plural global villages)

plural global villages

  1. The world as a single community of interdependent inhabitants who are interconnected by contemporary technology, especially television and the World Wide Web.

    McLuhan believes that the world is rapidly becoming a "global village," in which mankind communicates in a supermodern version of the way tribal societies were once related.

    1964 July 3, “Blowing Hot & Cold”, in Time, archived from the original on 19 Jun 2011
    2 more examples

    But certainly the electro-magnetic discoveries have recreated the simultaneous “field” in all human affairs so that the human family now exists under conditions of a “global village.”

    1962, Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy, University of Toronto Press, →OCLC, page 31

    Because the novel is so rooted in time and place, some of the events seem a bit outdated. However, Mitchell draws such explicit connections between these events, gay liberation, feminism and leftist politics in general that the book rises above its setting to make very clear comments about the global village as it is today.

    1982 December 4, Rob Kaplan, “Life in the Last Days”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 11

Origin

Coined by Marshall McLuhan in 1962.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 地球村, 世界村
  • 地球村 (dìqiúcūn)world as single community
  • 世界村 (shìjiècūn)world as single community
Dutch mondiaal dorp
  • mondiaal dorpworld as single community
Finnish maailmankylä
  • maailmankyläworld as single community
French village global
  • village globalworld as single community
German globales Dorf
  • globales Dorfworld as single community
Greek παγκόσμιο χωριό
  • παγκόσμιο χωριό (pagkósmio chorió)world as single community
Polish globalna wioska
  • globalna wioskaworld as single community
Spanish aldea global
  • aldea globalworld as single community
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

“global village.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/global%20village. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

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

Source: global village on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.