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When something attenuates, it lessens in size or intensity; it becomes thin or weakened.
A beatific expression, look, or smile shows great peace and happiness—it is angelic and saintly.
The word corporeal refers to the physical or material world rather than the spiritual; it also means characteristic of the body rather than the mind or feelings.
Someone who is corpulent is extremely fat.
A diaphanous cloth is thin enough to see through.
If a part of your body distends, it becomes swollen and unnaturally large.
An entity is a separate thing or object that is real and exists, such as a fish, a tree, or a rock.
If something is extant, it is still in existence despite being very old.
A gossamer material is very thin, light, and delicate.
Something illusory appears real or possible; in fact, it is neither.
The adjective ineffable refers to something that is so impressive and beautiful that you cannot describe it in words.
If someone’s mind is limber, they can readily adapt to new situations.
If a dancer is lissome, she moves gracefully and is very flexible.
Someone with a lithe body can move easily and gracefully.
Numinous objects or places seem spiritual or holy and possess a mysterious power that makes you feel that a spiritual being may be present.
If a mood or feeling is palpable, it is so strong and intense that it is easily noticed and is almost able to be physically felt.
To rarefy something is to make it less dense, as in oxygen at high altitudes; this word also refers to purifying or refining something, thereby making it less ordinary or commonplace.
If someone is rotund, they have a round and fat body.
Secular viewpoints are not religious or spiritual but pertain to worldly or material aspects of life.
If you say that something is somatic, you mean that it relates to or affects the body and not the mind.
Something that is sublime is so strikingly beautiful that it seems not of this world; therefore, it affects the emotions deeply.
The adjective svelte describes a person who is attractive, slender, and possesses a graceful figure.
Something that is tangible is able to be touched and thus is considered real.
Something tenuous is thin, weak, and unconvincing.
The word terrestrial refers to living or growing on land; it can also refer to planet Earth as a whole in comparison with other planets.
Something that is transcendent not only surpasses all others in quality, achievement, or significance, but exceeds normal limits or boundaries.
Someone who is ungainly is clumsy or awkward; something ungainly can be difficult to use, primarily because of its size or weight.
An unkempt person or thing is untidy and has not been kept neat.
Something that is vaporous is not completely formed but foggy and misty; in the same vein, a vaporous idea is insubstantial and vague.
Adj.
ethereal
i-THEER-ee-uhl
Context
Guinevere’s ethereal, otherworldly beauty was famous throughout the kingdom of King Arthur. Guinevere’s ethereal nature seemed almost too delicate to be part of this heavy physical world: her skin was almost transparent, and her hair shone with light. Some of King Arthur’s knights believed that the ethereal, unearthly, and heavenly Guinevere came from the fairy kingdom. When the knights found out that Guinevere’s name meant “white phantom” or “white ghost,” even more came to think that the airy Guinevere was not of this world—but ethereal.
Quiz:Try again!
What does it mean when something is ethereal?
It usually reacts with other chemicals when added to them.
It is so lovely that it seems separate from the physical world.
It is so poorly made that it will likely break extremely easily.
Esther Not RealEsther's ability to play ethereal music that so spoke to the heart and the emotions led people to believe that somehow her music was not part of this real world, but came through Esther from the divine world itself.
Examples
Even the preeminent field for abstract, quantified beauty—a domain whose very name, celestial mechanics, seems to evoke ethereal harmony—includes ever so many awfully messy and downright inconvenient irregularities.
— Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist and science historian, from _Dinosaur in a Haystack_
Midway through his four-hour shift, he'd wander around the medical clinic and stare out the window, oblivious to the ethereal white barn owl recuperating from head trauma in one enclosure, the magnificent red-tailed hawk recovering from a broken wing in another.
—
The Christian Science Monitor
The ceiling is covered with spirals of white illuminated fabric that gently throb, giving the impression of being beneath some ethereal cloud canopy (a welcome sight in Helsinki’s dark winter months), while two great conical voids plunge down from the piazza, framing views of surrounding buildings through their circular windows.
—
The Guardian
Bon Iver's _For Emma, Forever Ago_ conjures warm memories of Chris Whitley's best music: Each sounds ghostly and ethereal, radiating otherworldly beauty, but also strangely gritty in a way that gives it heft.
—
NPR
Anything of an ethereal nature is “of the upper air or clear sky,” and not really part of the more solid earth below.
Word Theater
Contact What she is seeing is ethereal.
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
