beauty
Americannoun
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the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
- Synonyms:
- allure, attractiveness, pulchritude
-
a beautiful person, especially a woman.
- Synonyms:
- belle
-
treatments and products that enhance a person’s physical attractiveness, or the industry associated with this.
She left her career in business administration to pursue her passion in beauty and wellness.
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a beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.
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Often beauties. a beautiful feature or trait in nature or in some natural or artificial environment.
the rugged beauties of our seashore and mountains.
-
an individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm.
a vivid blue area that is the one real beauty of the painting.
-
Informal. a particular advantage.
One of the beauties of this medicine is the freedom from aftereffects.
-
(often used ironically) someone or something that is extraordinary, remarkable, or amazing; a beaut.
That sunburn is a real beauty!
-
something excellent of its kind.
My old car, now she was a beauty.
adjective
noun
-
the combination of all the qualities of a person or thing that delight the senses and please the mind
-
a very attractive and well-formed girl or woman
-
informal an outstanding example of its kind
the horse is a beauty
-
informal an advantageous feature
one beauty of the job is the short hours
-
informal a light-hearted and affectionate term of address
hello, my old beauty!
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of beauty
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English be(a)ute, from Old French beaute; replacing Middle English bealte, from Old French beltet, from unattested Vulgar Latin bellitāt- (stem of unattested bellitās ), equivalent to Latin bell(us) “fine” + -itāt- noun suffix; see -ity
Explanation
Ah, beauty. Anything that has it pleases the senses, like a delicious scent, a perfect piece of pie, or a gorgeous person walking by. A noun describing an incredibly pleasing or harmonious quality or feature, beauty is hard to describe. Sure, super models and classical paintings exhibit beauty. But so do well designed sports cars and perfectly executed soccer goals. Belle found beauty in the Beast, astrologers find beauty in the stars, and arachnologists find beauty in giant hairy spiders. So that's why many people say that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
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:
The 32-year-old from Salford has been shopping at the fashion retailer since she was 16, picking up jeans, T-shirts and beauty products.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
“That’s the beauty of where we’re at right now,” Roberts said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
For Unilever, the deal with U.S.-headquartered McCormick is part of a major strategy shift to home in on beauty, personal-care and home products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Bigelow Apothecaries in New York, doesn’t sell peptides in his store, which is stocked with a mix of vitamins, high-end beauty supplies and medications — all products he believes to be safe.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
He caught another current of hot air in his wings and spiraled upward, looking out over a world of ferocious beauty.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
Following his previous film, “The Neon Demon,” “Her Private Hell” finds the director returning to some of his beloved motifs, such as impossibly glamorous yet noir-tinged spaces populated by blank-faced beauties in wickedly chic clothes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
“Yellow Pine” is a testament to her beloved remote corner of the Mojave, its beauties, hardships and endangerments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
"We don't pay much attention to bookies' odds. One of the beauties of rugby is that on any given day, anything can happen," said Underhill.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
In the middle are two young society beauties wearing the new clingy fashions with uncaricatured style, but amongst the mixed-sex groups that mill around them are gratuitously padded older women.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025
I was hungry for green vegetables, and that night as I went off to sleep, I thought of the pokeweeds, the dandelions, the spring beauties that would soon be pressing up from the earth.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
