Ethereal Meaning
/ɪˈθɪə.ɹɪ.əl/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjPertaining to the presupposition of an invisible air-like element permeating all of space, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere.
adjPertaining to the immaterial realm, as symbolically represented by, or (in earlier epochs) conflated with, such atmospheric and extra-atmospheric concepts.
Sentence Examples
The voice sounded very weird, almost ethereal.
Jamin's perfectly symmetrical features give her an ethereal and timeless beauty.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ballerina's ____ movements made her look like a floating spirit.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The morning light over the misty mountains had an ____, almost ghostly beauty.
Word Origin & History
From Latin aetherius (“of or pertaining to the ether, the sky, Heaven or the air or upper air”), from Ancient Greek αἰθέριος (aithérios, “of or pertaining to the upper air”). By surface analysis, ether + -ial.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Since to part, / Go heavenly Gueſt, Ethereal Meſſenger, / Sent from whoſe ſovran goodneſs I adore."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1282–1284:
"The fanciful fables of fairy land are but allegories of the young poet's mind when the sweet spell is upon him. Some slight thing calls up the visionary world, and all the outward and actual is for the time forgotten. It is a fever ethereal and lovely; but, like all other fevers, leaving behind weakness and exhaustion."
— 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 25–26:
"I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal, as our sky,[…]"
— 1862, Henry David Thoreau, “Walking”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 9, number 56:
"She was very young—at the most nineteen, with a pale somewhat refined face, yellow hair, merry blue eyes, and shining teeth. Her beauty was of an ethereal type."
— 1885, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Man From Archangel:
"Our visitors, upon the whole, were not much to boast of; and yet, sitting in a corner and very much ashamed of myself and my absurd appearance, I have again and again tasted the finest, the rarest, and the most ethereal pleasures in a glance of an eye that I should never see again—and never wanted to."
— 1893–1897 (date written), Robert Louis Stevenson, “A Tale of a Lion Rampant”, in St. Ives: Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1897, →OCLC, page 6:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ballerina's ____ movements made her look like a floating spirit.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The morning light over the misty mountains had an ____, almost ghostly beauty.