world of difference

First attested in the early 17th century.

world of difference (plural worlds of difference)

1. A great or insurmountable difference.

   There's a world of difference between sushi and poké bowls.

   • 1616 [1615], James VI and I, Pierre Du Moulin, “A Remonstrance for the Right of Kings, and the Independence of Their Crovvnes […]”, in James Montague, editor, The Workes of the Most High and Mightie Prince Iames […]‎, page 479:

     There is a world of difference betweene the termes of disobedience, and of deposition. It is one thing to disobey the Kings commaund in matters prohibited by diuine lawes, and yet in all other matters to performe full subiection vnto the King. It is another thing of a farre higher degree or straine of disloyaltie, to bare the King of his Royall robes, throne, and scepter, and when he is thus farre disgraced, to degrade him and to put him from his degree and place of a King.

   • 1971, Theodore Russell Weiss, The Breath of Clowns and Kings: Shakespeare’s Early Comedies and Histories‎, page 301:

     Less than six months separate these two days of the year, but some six or seven years of playwriting have intervened and that world of difference between summer and winter.

   • 2001, Martha C. Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions‎, →ISBN:

     There is, I think, too much abjectness in this, too much unwillingness to grant that a human being may in fact become, and be, good, and that there is all the world of difference between the evil and the good.

   • 2006, Catherine Moffatt, “Development Unmoored”, in George Jerry Sefa Dei, Arlo Kempf, editors, Anti-Colonialism and Education: The Politics of Resistance‎, →ISBN, page 235:

     The simple exercise of considering these two case studies makes clear the worlds of difference between Northern and Southern experiences of development […]

• “a world of difference”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “a world of difference” (US) / “a world of difference” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “a world of difference”, in Collins English Dictionary.