Meanings
plural open worlds
- alsoattributivevideo gamesA gameworld that the player may traverse freely, rather than being restricted to certain predefined areas and quests.First known use early 21st c.
The Saints Row games are open worlds, and many consider the Grand Theft Auto series to also be open worlds.
2014, Carolyn Handler Miller, “Video Games”, in Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment, 3rd edition, Burlington, Mass.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Focal Press, →ISBN, part 4 (Media and Models: Under the Hood), page 2835 more examples
Role-play games […] they use a closed visual world of walls or grids or open worlds across computer systems
2004, Paul Grover, “Computer Games in Your Hands”, in Visual Texts (The Heinemann English Project), Port Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic.: Heinemann Harcourt Education, →ISBN, page 15Open world games (sometimes referred to as "sandbox games") are one of the most popular genres of video games. They typically feature non-linear gameplay, the ability to roam the game world freely any way the player chooses, unscripted interaction with non-player characters (NPCs), and a living, breathing city, countryside, or fantasy environment to explore.
2007, David Hutchinson, “Kid-friendly Grand Theft Auto”, in Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom, Westport, Conn.: Teachers Ideas Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 110Liberty City, the virtual space of Grand Theft Auto III, can be interpreted as the spatial universe that qualitatively changes and combines the limited character attributes of the inhabiting non-player characters. Because they all seem to live and act in such a huge open world, they appear to be more complex themselves.
2008, Michael Nitsche, “Combining Interaction and Narrative”, in Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, →ISBN, part I (Structure), page 54The second category of storytelling that coexists in GTA [Grand Theft Auto]’s open world takes the form of player-driven stories.
2017, Chris Solarski, “Transitions in Open-world Games”, in Interactive Stories and Video Game Art: A Storytelling Framework for Game Design (An A K Peters Book), Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, section II (The Dramatic Curve and Transitions), page 170What Guy doesn’t know, but the audience surely will (it's all over the trailers), is that he's not a real person at all but rather an NPC—or non-player character—in a popular and extremely violent open-world video game.
2021 August 6, A. A. Dowd, “The Ryan Reynolds Action-comedy Free Guy is a Truman Show for the Fortnite Age”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2023
Origin
From open (adjective) + world.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic عالم مفتوح
- عالم مفتوحgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Catalan món obert
- món obertgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Chinese Mandarin 開放世界 /开放世界
- 開放世界 /开放世界 (kāifàngshìjiè)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Danish åben verden
- åben verdengameworld that the player may traverse freely
Finnish avoin pelimaailma
- avoin pelimaailmagameworld that the player may traverse freely
French monde ouvert
- monde ouvertgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Hindi खुली दुनिया
- खुली दुनिया (khulī duniyā)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Indonesian dunia terbuka
- dunia terbukagameworld that the player may traverse freely
Italian mondo aperto
- mondo apertogameworld that the player may traverse freely
Japanese オープンワールド
- オープンワールド (ōpunwārudo)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Korean 오픈 월드
- 오픈 월드 (opeun woldeu)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Lithuanian atviras pasáulis
- atviras pasáulisgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Malay dunia terbuka
- dunia terbukagameworld that the player may traverse freely
Norwegian Bokmål åpen verden
- åpen verdengameworld that the player may traverse freely
Persian جهان باز
- جهان بازgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Polish otwarty świat, piaskownica
- otwarty światgameworld that the player may traverse freely
- piaskownicagameworld that the player may traverse freely
Portuguese mundo aberto
- mundo abertogameworld that the player may traverse freely
Russian откры́тый мир
- откры́тый мир (otkrýtyj mir)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Spanish mundo abierto
- mundo abiertogameworld that the player may traverse freely
Swedish öppen värld
- öppen världgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Tamil திறந்தவுலகம்
- திறந்தவுலகம் (tiṟantavulakam)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Turkish açık dünya
- açık dünyagameworld that the player may traverse freely
Ukrainian відкри́тий світ
- відкри́тий світ (vidkrýtyj svit)gameworld that the player may traverse freely
Vietnamese thế giới mở
- thế giới mởgameworld that the player may traverse freely
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with open world
All rhymes →Cite this entry
open world. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20world
“open world.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20world. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “open world,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20world.
Source: open world on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.