beautiful

English

Etymology

(1520) From beauty + Germanic -ful (“full of”). Displaced earlier English sheen "beautiful" (from Middle English schene (“beautiful”), from Old English scīene (“beautiful”)), Middle English wliti (“beautiful”), from Old English wlitiġ (“beautiful”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: byo͞oʹtĭ-fəl, IPA: /ˈbjuːtɪfəl/, SAMPA: /"bju:tIf@l/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Hyphenation: beau‧ti‧ful

Adjective

beautiful (comparative more beautiful, superlative most beautiful)

1. Attractive and possessing charm.

   Anyone who has ever met her thought she was absolutely beautiful.

   There's a beautiful lake by the town.

2. (of the weather) pleasant; clear.

   It's beautiful outside, let's go for a walk.

3. well executed

   The skater performed a beautiful axel.

4. (as a pro-sentence) How beautiful that is!

   Beautiful! What a catch! (referring to an athlete catching a ball)

5. (as a pro-sentence; ironic) How unfortunate that is!

   Beautiful! I dropped the soup on the floor!

Usage notes

The comparatives beautifuler and beautifuller, and the superlatives beautifulest and beautifullest have also occasionally been used, but are considered dated or obsolete.

Synonyms

• (possessing charm and attractive): beauteous, attractive, cute, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, sheen, handsome, hot (slang), lovely, nice-looking, pretty, shapely, fit (slang)
• (of the weather): clear, fine, nice, pleasant, sunny
• (well executed): excellent, exceptional, good, great, marvellous/marvelous, perfect, stylish, wonderful
• (ironic: how unfortunate): great, marvellous/marvelous, nice, very nice, wonderful (any of these can be prefixed with an intensifier such as bloody, damned or just)
• See also Wikisaurus:beautiful

Antonyms

• (possessing charm and attractive): grotesque, hideous, homely, plain, misshapen, repulsive, ugly
• (of the weather): bad, cloudy, dull, miserable, overcast, rainy, wet
• (well executed): average, bad, mediocre, poor, shoddy, substandard, terrible, weak

Derived terms

• beautiful armadillo
• beautiful game
• beautiful people
• beautifully
• beautifulness

Related terms

• beauty
  • See also Wikisaurus:beautiful woman

Translations

possessing charm and attractive

Afrikaans: mooi Albanian: i bukur m., e bukur f. American Sign Language: 5@NearCheek-PalmBack RoundVert OpenA@NearJaw-PalmBack Amharic: ቆንጆ (qonjo) Arabic: جميل (ar) (jamiil) Moroccan Arabic: زوين (zwin) m. Armenian: գեղեցիկ (hy) (geġec'ik), սիրուն (hy) (sirun) Azeri: Cyrillic: гәшәнҝ (az), лијеп (sh) Roman: lep (sh), lijep (sh) Roman: qəşəng (az) Belarusian: выдатны (be) (vydátny) Bengali: সুন্দর (bn) (sundôr) Breton: brav, kaer Bulgarian: красив (bg) (krasív), прекрасен (bg) (prekrásen) Catalan: bell, formós, bonic (ca) m., bonica (ca) f. Chamicuro: pya'c̈homa, pewa puti'na Chinese: Mandarin: 漂亮 (cmn) (piàoliang), 美 (cmn) (měi), 好看 (cmn) (hǎokàn) Czech: krásný (cs), pěkný (cs) Dalmatian: bial Danish: smuk (da) Dutch: mooi (nl) Egyptian: nfr Esperanto: bela (eo) Estonian: kaunis ilus Faroese: vakur (fo) m., vøkur (fo) f. vakurt (fo) n. Fijian: totoka Filipino: maganda Finnish: kaunis (fi) French: beau (fr) m., belle (fr) f. Georgian: მშვენიერი (ka) (mšvenieri), ლამაზი (ka) (lamazi) German: schön (de) Greek: ωραίος (el) m. (oraíos), όμορφος (el) m. (ómorfos) Hebrew: יפה (he) (yafe) m., יפה (he) (yafa) f. Hindi: ख़ूबसूरत (hi) (xūbsūrat), सुन्दर (hi) (sundar) Hungarian: szép (hu), gyönyörű (hu) Icelandic: fallegur (is), fagur (is) Ido: bela (io) Indonesian: indah, cantik, ayu, molek, cakep Interlingua: belle (ia) Irish: álainn (ga) Italian: bello (it) Japanese: 美しい (ja) (うつくしい, utsukushii), 綺麗 (ja), きれい (ja) (kirei), 素敵 (ja) (すてき, suteki) Khmer: ស្អាត (saāt), ល្អ (km) (l'ɑɑ)

Korean: (attributive) 아름다운 (ko) (areumdaun), (predicative) 아름답다 (ko) (areumdapda) Kurdish: جوان, ئێسک سووک Lao: ງາມ (lo) (ngaam) Latin: pulcher (la), formosus (la) m., bellus (la) m. Limburgish: sjoen (li) Lojban: melbi (jbo) Macedonian: убав (mk) (úbav) m., убава (mk) (úbava) f., убаво (mk) (úbavo) n., прекрасен (mk) (prékrasen) m., прекрасна (mk) (prékrasna) f., прекрасно (mk) (prékrasno) n. Malay: cantik (ms), indah (ms), molek (ms) Navajo: nizhóní Novial: beli Old Church Slavonic: красьнъ (krasĭnŭ) Old English: wlitig (ang) Old Norse: fagr Old Provençal: bel Persian: زیبا (fa) (zibâ), قشنگ (fa) (qašang) Polish: piękny (pl) Portuguese: belo (pt) m., bela (pt) f., bonito (pt) m., bonita (pt) f. Punjabi: ਸੁਹਣਾ (suhṇā) m., ਸੁਹਣੀ (suhṇī) f. Romanian: frumos (ro) m. and n., frumoasă (ro) f. Russian: красивый (ru) (krasívyj), прекрасный (ru) (prekrásnyj) Scottish Gaelic: àlainn, bòidheach, brèagha, fèilleil, grinn, maiseach, rìomhach, sgèimheach Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: леп (sh) Sinhalese: ලස්සන (si) (lassanna) Slovak: krásny (sk), pekný (sk) Slovene: lep (sl) Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: rědny Spanish: hermoso (es), bello (es), lindo (es), guapo (es), bonito (es) Swahili: zuri (sw) Swedish: fin (sv), vacker (sv) Tajik: зебо (tg) (zebo) Tamil: அழகிய (azhagiya) Telugu: అందమైన Thai: สุนทร (th) (sŭnton), สวย (th) (sŭay), งาม (th) (ngaam) Tswana: -ntle (tn) Turkish: güzel (tr) Ukrainian: вродливий (uk) (vrodlývyj), красивий (uk) (krasývyj) Urdu: خوبصورت (ur) (xūbsūrat), سندر (ur) (sundar) Vietnamese: đẹp đẽ (vi), tốt (vi), tốt đẹp (vi), đẹp (vi) Volapük: jönik (vo) Walloon: bea (wa) m. Welsh: hardd (cy), prydferth (cy) West Frisian: moai, kreas

of weather: pleasant, clear

Armenian: հաճելի (hač̣eli) Bulgarian: хубав (bg) Dutch: mooi (nl) Finnish: kaunis (fi) French: beau (fr) m. German: heiter (de), schön (de) Hebrew: נאה (na'e) Hungarian: szép (hu)

Italian: bel (before "tempo"); bello (after "tempo") Kurdish: خۆش, فێنک Limburgish: sjoen (li) Macedonian: убаво (mk) (úbavo) n. Spanish: bueno (es), despejado (es), alegre (es) Swedish: fint (sv) n., vackert (sv) n. Tamil: அழகிய (azhagiya) Telugu: ఆహ్లాదకరమైన

well executed

Finnish: kaunis (fi), loistava (fi) Hungarian: szép (hu)

Macedonian: убаво (mk) (úbavo)

as a pro-sentence

German: toll (de)

Spanish: bravo (es)

ironic: how unfortunate

Finnish: loistava (fi) German: toll (de), schön (de)

Hungarian: szép (hu) Macedonian: убаво (mk) (úbavo)

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: England · sense · ten · #422: beautiful · possible · mark · followed