lovely
Americanadjective
-
charmingly or exquisitely beautiful.
a lovely flower.
-
having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye, as a person or a face.
-
delightful; highly pleasing.
to have a lovely time.
-
of a great moral or spiritual beauty.
a lovely character.
noun
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Informal. a beautiful woman, especially a show girl.
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any person or thing that is pleasing, highly satisfying, or the like.
Every car in the new line is a lovely.
adverb
adjective
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very attractive or beautiful
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highly pleasing or enjoyable
a lovely time
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loving and attentive
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inspiring love; lovable
noun
Usage
What are other ways to say lovely?
The adjective lovely describes people or things that are charmingly or exquisitely beautiful. How is it different from beautiful, handsome, and pretty? Learn more on Thesaurus.com.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of lovely
First recorded before 900; Middle English luvelich, Old English luflīc “amiable”; love + -ly
Explanation
You've probably heard the adjective lovely to describe something good looking, but did you know that, as a noun, lovely refers, specifically, to a beautiful girl employed as a photographer’s model? From the Old English luflic “affectionate, loveable,” comes lovely, an adjective that describes a person’s or thing’s attractiveness. Find the word love in there — it's something so attractive you can't help but love it. Lovely can also refer to something delightful. For example, a pretty selection of cakes and pastries arranged on a doily could be described as lovely. Anything from your girlfriend to a fresh coat of red paint on your motorcycle can be lovely.
Vocabulary lists containing lovely
Call of Beauty: Synonyms for "Beautiful"
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"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That’s lovely, but it doesn’t change the fact that LeBron wouldn’t be happy losing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Anchored on a near-orchestral soundstage, its 20 tracks ricochet from in-your-face punk dissonance to majestic broken-heart dirges, a lovely duet with St. Vincent, rootsy folk interludes and farfisa-rich lounge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
When I was 15, I went to Summerhill, a lovely English boarding school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
"You're like the negativity committee so it's lovely coming and talking to you again."
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
“And it’s not just Wall Street. It’s that lovely stretch of land by the sea that has since been desecrated by that horrid carnival.”
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Fanny and Stella, middle-class lovelies in hoop skirts, engage in a warm embrace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025
Estrada’s top tip for growing these lovelies is to plant rhizomes horizontally and shallowly so that the top of the fleshy root is exposed.
From Seattle Times ● May 11, 2024
Persimmons, grapefruit, kumquats and perhaps the most delectable and elusive of all the mandarins: the tiny, seedless kishus — all of these little lovelies thrive in our climate.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2023
Hey my lovelies it’s with great disappointment that I willl not be performing this weekend @bbcstrictly due to testing positive with Covid 19.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2021
I thought I should maybe apologize for what I did to her lovelies.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
Less than two miles away, at the Wallace Collection, we find its pendant, the even lovelier “The Rainbow Landscape.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
One newspaper wrote that "it would be difficult to find anyone lovelier than her" while another raved about "her lovely features and lustrous eyes and graceful movements".
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2023
I was nervous, and she couldn't have been lovelier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
It's quite a lovely spot, and Sharon is lovelier still, both inside and out.
From Salon ● May 8, 2022
The Trojan War would have ended in an honorable peace, leaving both sides unconquered, if it had not been for her hatred of a Trojan who had judged another goddess lovelier than she.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
Her “Left Over,” which she first recorded for 2015’s “For One to Love,” is the loveliest track here, befitting the classics surrounding it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Each rendering is a wager against oblivion, and Mr. Armitage’s is the loveliest wager of the lot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
But if “What Do You Mean?” deploys a more conventional tropical-house production, it’s still built around one of the singer’s loveliest vocals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
She added, "The devastating loss of a child is beyond measure and this one was one of the loveliest there are."
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
The loveliest scenes, he found, were comprised of the simplest, most natural juxtapositions of native plants.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
