ON EARTH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does on earth mean? 

• ON EARTH (adverb)
  The adverb ON EARTH has 1 sense:

1. used with question words to convey surprise

  Familiarity information: ON EARTH used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ON EARTH (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Used with question words to convey surprise

Context example:

what on earth are you doing?

 Context examples 

The strong emphasis on earth planets in March will make the world a happy place for you.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

I stood gazing round and wondering where on earth I might be, when I saw some one coming towards me in the darkness.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Why, what on earth does this mean, John?’ he stammered.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"How on earth do you know?" said Art.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Agnes and I parted from him aboard-ship, when he sailed; and we shall never part from him more, on earth.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“My dear Holmes,” I exclaimed, “how on earth——”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What brother on earth would do half so much for his sisters, even if REALLY his sisters!

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

They have lived on earth for about 350 million years, as compared with less than 2 million for man.

(Insect, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I believe that I have no enemy on earth, and none surely would have been so wicked as to destroy me wantonly.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)