sublime
Americanadjective
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elevated or lofty in thought, language, etc.: Paradise Lost is sublime poetry.
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impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc..
Switzerland has sublime scenery.
- Synonyms:
- majestic, imposing, resplendent, gorgeous, grand, august, superb, magnificent
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supreme or outstanding.
a sublime dinner.
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complete; absolute; utter.
sublime stupidity.
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Archaic.
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of lofty bearing.
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Archaic. raised high; high up.
noun
verb (used with object)
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to make higher, nobler, or purer.
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Chemistry.
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to convert (a solid substance) by heat into a vapor, which on cooling condenses again to solid form, without apparent liquefaction.
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to cause to be given off by this or some analogous process.
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verb (used without object)
adjective
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of high moral, aesthetic, intellectual, or spiritual value; noble; exalted
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inspiring deep veneration, awe, or uplifting emotion because of its beauty, nobility, grandeur, or immensity
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unparalleled; supreme
a sublime compliment
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poetic of proud bearing or aspect
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archaic raised up
noun
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something that is sublime
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the ultimate degree or perfect example
the sublime of folly
verb
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(tr) to make higher or purer
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to change or cause to change directly from a solid to a vapour or gas without first melting
to sublime iodine
many mercury salts sublime when heated
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to undergo or cause to undergo this process followed by a reverse change directly from a vapour to a solid
to sublime iodine onto glass
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of sublime
First recorded in 1350–1400; (for the noun and adjective) from Latin sublīmis “high,” equivalent to sub- sub- + an element of uncertain origin, variously identified with līmen “lintel, threshold” or līmus “askew, aslant”; (for the verb) ultimately derivative of sublīmis
Explanation
In common use, sublime is an adjective meaning "awe-inspiringly grand, excellent, or impressive," like the best chocolate fudge sundae you've ever had. You might describe a spine-tingling piece of music as "a work of sublime beauty." With the, the word also functions as a noun meaning "something that strikes the mind with a sense of grandeur or power": "Never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery," wrote Washington Irving. The beauty of music or nature can be awe-inspiring, but sublime is also useful for describing everything from an impressive serve in tennis to a jaw-droppingly good taste sensation.
Vocabulary lists containing sublime
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Grade 12, List 1
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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:
The run is also continuing his sublime form in longer-format matches - this win extending the streak to 28 successive wins in games with 20 or more legs.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
In return, he left us a sublime body of work, one that languished in astonishing critical neglect until the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, the result of a dwindling taste for monastic and devotional art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Other Stones records contain more classics and better production, but none holds together as well as a whole or comes as close to the sublime as this one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
It’s a movie of sublime sentiment and spiritual richness, with Stewart its earnest, tender heart.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
“Ah,” Mary Anne mocked, “the voice of sublime perfection. Was that the godly one? The sainted brother? The perfect son?”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Likewise, solid carbon dioxide does not melt at 1 atm pressure but instead sublimes to yield gaseous CO2.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
The pentachloride sublimes when warmed and forms an equilibrium with the trichloride and chlorine when heated.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Dry ice does not melt to a liquid but sublimes directly from the solid state to vapor.
From Time Magazine Archive
He loves the monks as great dreamers, as the chercheurs de chimères sublimes, but he cannot help them, cannot defend what they possess, for behind them already stand their heirs.
From ?mile Verhaeren by Zweig, Stefan
If the human calculus be distilled, it yields a volatile alkali, and something sublimes from it which has a sourish taste, and therefore called the acid of the calculus.
From Heads of Lectures on a Course of Experimental Philosophy: Particularly Including Chemistry by Priestley, Joseph
Like two that had died and found each other, they talked until speech rose into silence—they smiled until the dews which the smiles had sublimed claimed their turn and descended in tears.
From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 by Various
It is not for those who symbolize divine things otherwise, who typify to their fellow-men the flesh crucified, the soul sublimed.
From Dreamers of the Ghetto by Zangwill, Israel
It may be destroyed by dusting the leaves attacked with sublimed sulphur.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various
It was the philosophy of Plato, sublimed and harmonized by the political circumstances of the times.
From The Cradle of the Christ A Study in Primitive Christianity by Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
For further purification, it may be sublimed, after having been previously mixed with a little powdered charcoal, or it may be mixed with a small quantity of iodine and heated.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 6 "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of" by Various
But I believe he is chiefly meditating on the purging and subliming of what he has already done: and repents that he has published at all yet.
From Letters of Edward FitzGerald in two volumes, Vol. 1 by Wright, William Aldis
"I know what you want better than you do," he seems often to be saying to the metals he is calcining, separating, joining and subliming.
From The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry by Muir, M. M. Pattison
That end will not be attained by our authors by subliming Religion into an emotion, and making an armistice with Science.
From Inspiration and Interpretation Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford by Burgon, John William
The subliming the mercury is, however, a process injurious to the health.
From Young's Demonstrative Translation of Scientific Secrets by Young, Daniel
But I believe he is chiefly meditating on the purging and subliming of what he has already done: and repents that he has published at all yet.
From Tennyson's Life and Poetry And Mistakes Concerning Tennyson by Parsons, Eugene
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.
