it's a small world

English

Alternative forms

• what a small world
• small world

Phrase

it's a small world

1. Used to express surprise at meeting an acquaintance or discovering a personal connection in a distant place or an unexpected context.
   • 1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881, →OCLC, book the fifth (De Stancy and Paula), page 40:

     “I have met my young photographer,” said De Stancy, cheerily. “What a small world it is, as every busybody truly observes! I am wishing he could take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you, I suppose, Mr. Dare?”

Related terms

• small-world network

Translations

phrase used when meeting an acquaintance or personal connection in an unexpected place or context

• Catalan: el món és un mocador (literally “the world is a handkerchief”)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 好巧 (hǎo qiǎo)

• Finnish: maailma on pieni
• French: le monde est petit (fr)
• German: die ganze Welt ist ein Dorf (literally “the world is a village”), wie klein die Welt doch ist, unsere Welt ist ja so klein
• Hungarian: kicsi a világ
• Italian: il mondo è piccolo, com'è piccolo il mondo, come è piccolo il mondo
• Japanese: 世間は広い様で狭い (せけんはひろいようでせまい, seken wa hiroi yō de semai), 世界は狭い (せかいはせまい, sekai wa semai), 世間は狭い (せけんはせまい, seken wa semai)
• Polish: jaki ten świat mały
• Russian: мир те́сен (mir tésen)
• Spanish: el mundo es un pañuelo (literally “the world is a handkerchief”)
• Swedish: världen är liten
• Tagalog: ang liit ng mundo
• Ukrainian: яка Земля кругла (jaka Zemlja kruhla, literally “how round is the Earth”)

References

• “small world”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.