Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(producer). The world (Gen. 1:1); dry land (Gen. 1:10); the soil (Gen. 2:7).
“Earth” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
Several Hebrew words are translated “earth,” but they are not employed to distinguish the earth as a sphere from the surface of the earth, or ground; nor to discriminate between the general surface of the earth, and any portion of it as “land,” or the soil of the earth. Thus adanzah generally refers to the earth as ground or soil: the rain falls on “the earth” (Gen. 7:4); “an altar of earth” (Ex. 20:24); man “returneth to his earth” (Psa. 146:4); but it often refers to the “land” of Israel: “prolong your days upon the land”; “dwell in the land”; “live in the land”; “the land which I sware unto their fathers” (Deut. 30:18, 20; Deut. 31:13, 20).
Another word, erets, has wider significations: sometimes the earth as a sphere: “God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1); He “hangeth the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7): but in other places it is restricted to districts: “out of that land went forth Asshur”; “after their tongues in their countries”; “in his days was the earth divided” (Gen. 10:11,20,25).
In the New Testament the word γῆ is employed for all the above various significations. It is used symbolically as a characteristic of man according to his natural estate. “He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth” (John 3:31).
From the above examples it will be seen that in some instances where the AV has “earth,” the “land” only, or the land of Canaan, may be intended; the context must be studied in each case.
“World, The” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
The word commonly so rendered in the Old Testament is tebel, signifying “the habitable earth:” it is an expression of limited bearing, applied to that sphere which comes more directly under divine dealings (Psa. 90:2); and to the inhabitants, who will be judged (Psa. 9:8). The word in the New Testament answering to the above, is; οἰκονμέη its various applications can be seen (Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28; Acts 17:6, 31; Acts 19:27; Heb. 2:5). In the last passage it is the coming world, that is, that which is put under the Son of Man, that is spoken of.
In the New Testament κόσμος is the more general word, which in Greek writers signifies “order, regularity, ornament”; it is translated “adorning” (1 Pet. 3:3). The heaven and the earth, because of their order and beauty, are called cosmos, “the world.” This word is employed for “world” in its various meanings, as for instance the material earth (Rom. 1:20); the inhabitants of the world that will be judged (Rom. 3:6); and in a moral sense as the condition and spirit which is opposed to God (1 Cor. 2:12; James 4:4; 1 John 2:16).
Another word, αἰών, “age, duration,” is applied both to the present age, the course of this world, and to age-enduring, or eternity (Rom. 12:2; Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21; Eph. 6:12). With a preposition it is translated “forever,” and when the word is repeated, “forever and ever,” or “to the ages of ages” (2 Cor. 9:9; Gal. 1:5; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17). In two passages this word refers to the material worlds (Heb. 1:2; Heb. 11:3).
Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words:
Meaning:
contracted from a primary word; soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe (including the occupants in each application)
KJV Usage:
country, earth(-ly), ground, land, world