svetska

Svetska is a feminine adjective used in several South Slavic languages, notably Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian, meaning worldly, secular, or pertaining to the world. It agrees with feminine nouns; the corresponding masculine and neuter forms are svjetski and svjetsko. The root is svet/svijet, from which the sense of “world” or “worldly” develops, with the adjectival suffix -ski/-ska.

The term appears in many compound phrases to express global or worldly scope, such as svjetska književnost (world literature), svjetska politika (world politics), or svjetska ekonomija (world economy). It can contrast with spiritual or ecclesiastical domains (duhovna, crkvena). In institutional names, svjetska is used to signal international scope, for example Svjetska zdravstvena organizacija in Croatian for the World Health Organization.

Note: Spelling can vary by language and orthography; standard Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian typically write svjetska, though older or dialectal texts may show svetska. The form is primarily descriptive rather than a standalone proper noun.

See also: svet/svijet (world), svjetski, svjetsko, world literature.