Working with vocabulary

[Т А Кузнецова]

Working with words

www.wordnik.com

This site is for those who are interested in developing vocabulary and you’ll find it useful to practise it. You’ll be able to look at the words to encourage students to use them in oral and written speech.

beautiful

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having qualities that delight the senses, especially the sense of sight.

2. adj. Excellent; wonderful.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Full of beauty; possessing qualities that delight the senses, especially the eye or the ear, or awaken admiration or approval in the mind. See beauty, 1.

2. Synonyms Beautiful, Beauteous, Handsome, Pretty, Fair, Lovely, Comely, charming, all apply to that which is highly pleasing, especially to the eye. Beautiful, the most general of these words, is also often the noblest and most spiritual, expressing that which gives the highest satisfaction to eye, ear, mind, or soul. Beauteous is chiefly poetic, and covers the less spiritual part of beautiful. Handsome is founded upon the notion of proportion, symmetry, as the result of cultivation or work; a handsome figure is strictly one that has been developed by attention to physical laws into the right proportions. It is less spiritual than beautiful; a handsome face is not necessarily a beautiful face. Handsome applies to larger or more important things than pretty: as, a handsome house; a pretty cottage. It is opposed to homely. Pretty applies to that which has symmetry and delicacy, a diminutive beauty, without the higher qualities of gracefulness, dignity, feeling, purpose, etc. A thing not small of its kind may be called pretty if it is of little dignity or consequence: as, a pretty dress or shade of color; but pretty is not used of men or their belongings, except in contempt. Fair starts from the notion of a brightness that catches the eye; it notes that sort of beauty which delights the eye by complexion and feature; in this sense it is now less common in prose. Lovely is a strong word for that which is immediately pleasing to the eye; it applies primarily to that which excites admiration and love. Comely applies rather to the human figure, chiefly in its proportions; it is used less commonly than handsome to express the result of care or training. See elegant.