TERRESTRIAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does terrestrial mean? 

• TERRESTRIAL (adjective)
  The adjective TERRESTRIAL has 5 senses:

1. of or relating to or inhabiting the land as opposed to the sea or air

2. of or relating to or characteristic of the planet Earth or its inhabitants

3. operating or living or growing on land

4. concerned with the world or worldly matters

5. of this earth

  Familiarity information: TERRESTRIAL used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TERRESTRIAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to or inhabiting the land as opposed to the sea or air

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

tellurian; telluric; terrene; terrestrial

Pertainym:

earth (the solid part of the earth's surface)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to or characteristic of the planet Earth or its inhabitants

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

planetary; terrestrial

Context example:

this terrestrial ball

Pertainym:

earth (the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Operating or living or growing on land

Similar:

onshore (on the edge of the land)

overland (traveling or passing over land)

Antonym:

amphibious (operating or living on land and in water)

aquatic (operating or living or growing in water)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Concerned with the world or worldly matters

Synonyms:

mundane; terrestrial

Context example:

he developed an immense terrestrial practicality

Similar:

secular; temporal; worldly (characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Of this earth

Synonyms:

sublunar; sublunary; terrestrial

Context example:

the nearest to an angelic being that treads this terrestrial ball

Similar:

earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)

 Context examples 

As a comparison, a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons per square kilometer, mostly in the form of wood.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

Terrestrial change happened hundreds of thousands of years earlier and very gradually, the scientists found.

(Mass extinction of land and sea biodiversity 250 million years ago not simultaneous, National Science Foundation)

Enterococci appear to have developed these traits at around the same time that terrestrial animal life evolved.

(Enterococci may have evolved antimicrobial resistance millions of years ago, NIH)

Mercury stands out from the other Solar System terrestrial planets, showing a very high fraction of iron and implying it formed in a different way.

(Mercury Not as Rare as Previously Thought, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This leaves them vulnerable to contamination from terrestrial chemistry and life.

(Vitamin B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by meteorites, NASA)

After about 100 million years, the objects mature into full-grown, terrestrial planets.

(Spitzer Telescope Witnesses Asteroid Smashup, NASA)

The researchers spent four years improving the sensitivity of their instruments and, using the new tools, collected the first biomarker record of the PETM from terrestrial core samples.

(Clues found on how soils may respond to climate change, National Science Foundation)

It is synthesized by several unicellular algae and some terrestrial plants.

(Brassicasterol, NCI Thesaurus)

Over the course of the year, CO2 levels rise during fall and winter and decline during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer as terrestrial plants consume CO2 during photosynthesis.

(South Pole is last place on Earth to pass global warming milestone, NOAA)

According to recent estimates, there are as many as 700 million trillion terrestrial planets in the observable universe.

(Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth, University of Cambridge)