Earthly means relating to the physical world we live in rather than spiritual or heavenly matters. When someone talks about earthly possessions, they mean material things like money, houses, or cars: the stuff you can touch and own here on Earth. When a monk gives up all his earthly belongings to live simply, he's leaving behind physical comfort to focus on spiritual development.

The word often appears in contrast to religious or supernatural ideas. Ancient philosophers debated whether people should focus on earthly pleasures or prepare for an afterlife. A story might describe how a character chooses between earthly power and doing what's morally right.

Sometimes earthly simply means possible or imaginable in this world, as when someone says “there's no earthly reason why that happened.” This means they can't think of any normal, real-world explanation for something strange or surprising.

The word carries a sense of limitation too: earthly things are temporary and bound by the rules of nature, unlike eternal or divine things. Your earthly life is the one you're living right now, with all its ordinary joys, challenges, and experiences.