ethereal
Americanadjective
-
light, airy, or tenuous.
an ethereal world created through the poetic imagination.
-
extremely delicate or refined.
ethereal beauty.
-
heavenly or celestial.
gone to his ethereal home.
-
of or relating to the upper regions of space.
-
Chemistry. pertaining to, containing, or resembling ether.
adjective
-
extremely delicate or refined; exquisite
-
almost as light as air; impalpable; airy
-
celestial or spiritual
-
of, containing, or dissolved in an ether, esp diethyl ether
an ethereal solution
-
of or relating to the ether
Other Word Forms
- ethereality noun
- ethereally adverb
- etherealness noun
- ethereous adjective
- nonethereal adjective
- nonethereality noun
- nonethereally adverb
- nonetherealness noun
- unethereal adjective
- unethereally adverb
- unetherealness noun
Etymology
Origin of ethereal
First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin aethere(us) (from Greek aithérios ), equivalent to aether- ether + -eus adjective suffix + -al 1
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.
There was water in every direction, as far as I could see, and an ethereal mist hovered above it.
From Literature
Directly in the center, a slender vertical window — part of the gallery’s architecture — illuminates the otherwise darkened room with a pillar of natural light, further contributing to the ethereal nature of the piece.
From Los Angeles Times
The day after she and her husband, Jack, sculpt the figure of a child out of snow, an ethereal waif emerges from the wilderness.
A new Alice + Olivia spring collection features long pleated skirts and silk bomber jackets with an ethereal tarot-card print that was made with the help of Leonardo AI and Adobe Firefly.
Julia “Butterfly” Hill — whose ethereal, barefoot portraits high in the redwood canopy became a symbol of the Redwood Summer — spent two years living in a thousand-year-old tree, named Luna, to keep it from being felled.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
