Ethereal
adjective /ɪˈθɪəriəl/ — Too perfect to seem quite real.
Definition
Extremely delicate and light, seemingly too beautiful or refined to belong to the ordinary world.
Beyond the definition
Used to describe beauty that feels otherworldly — a face, a landscape, a piece of music that makes you think it couldn't possibly be from here.
Origin & history
From Greek aither — the clear upper sky, the material believed to fill the upper regions of space.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
The fog rolling over the hills gave the landscape an ethereal quality.
She moved with an ethereal grace that made everyone stop talking.
The choir's ethereal harmonies filled the old cathedral.
How to use it
This entry uses an adjective. Follow the examples for the nouns it describes and its position in the sentence.
Choose “Ethereal” when the meaning fits your context: Extremely delicate and light, seemingly too beautiful or refined to belong to the ordinary world.
Synonyms
Antonyms
earthly, mundane, coarse
Related words
- ephemeral
- luminous
- diaphanous
- celestial
Ethereal vs celestial
Ethereal describes something delicate, airy, or otherworldly in quality. Celestial specifically refers to the heavens or sky, focusing on space or divinity rather than just a light, gauzy feeling.
Word in the Wild
Illustrative story: an imagined scene, not a documented event or interview.
There is a specific kind of light in the Scottish Highlands at six in the morning in summer — grey and gold at once, the loch perfectly still, the hills faintly misted.
A travel writer once tried to describe it and gave up. "I wrote four drafts," he said. "Every version made it sound like a screensaver."
He went back the following year instead. Some things don't improve with description. They improve with return.
Questions about this word
What does "Ethereal" mean?
Ethereal is adjective meaning: Too perfect to seem quite real.. Extremely delicate and light, seemingly too beautiful or refined to belong to the ordinary world.
Which words express “too beautiful to describe”?
Ethereal — Too perfect to seem quite real.
Where does the word "Ethereal" come from?
From Greek aither — the clear upper sky, the material believed to fill the upper regions of space.