beautiful

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: byo͞oʹtĭ-fəl, IPA: [ˈbjuːtɪfəɫ], X-SAMPA: /"bju:tIf@l/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: beau‧ti‧ful

Adjective

beautiful (comparative more beautiful, superlative most beautiful)

1. Attractive and possessing charm.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, The China Governess^[1]:

     ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’

   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; unbeautiful
• (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 (am) (qonjo)
• Arabic: جميل (ar) (jamiil)

  Moroccan Arabic: زوين (zwin) m

• Armenian: գեղեցիկ (hy) (geġec'ik), սիրուն (hy) (sirun)
• Azeri: qəşəng (az)

  Cyrillic: гәшәнҝ (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), schoon (nl)
• Egyptian: nfr

• Esperanto: bela (eo)
• Estonian: kaunis (et), ilus (et)
• 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) (oraíos) m (oraíos), όμορφος (el) (ómorfos) m (ómorfos)
• Hebrew: יָפֶה (he) (yafé) m, יָפָה (he) (yafá) 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), spéiriúil (ga)
• Italian: bello (it)
• Japanese: 美しい (ja) (うつくしい, utsukushii), 綺麗 (ja) (きれい, kirei), 素敵 (ja) (すてき, suteki)
• Jèrriais: bieau m, belle f
• Khmer: ស្អាត (saāt), ល្អ (km) (l'ɑɑ)
• Korean: (attributive) 아름다운 (ko) (areumdaun), (predicative) 아름답다 (ko) (areumdapda)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: جوان, ئێسک سووک

• Kyrgyz: сулуу (ky) (suluu), көркөм (ky) (körköm), кооз (ky) (kooz), сонун (ky) (sonun), чырайлуу (ky) (çırayluu), чырай жүздүү (ky) (çıray cüzdüü), сулуу (ky) (suluu), укмуштай (ky) (ukmuştay), укмуштай (ky) (ukmuştay), ажайып (ky) (acayıp), көйүткөн (ky) (köyütkön)
• Lao: ງາມ (lo) (ngaam)
• Latin: pulcher (la), formosus (la) m, bellus (la) m
• Latvian: skaists (lv), daiļš (lv), glīts (lv)
• Limburgish: sjoen (li)
• Lithuanian: gražus (lt)
• Lojban: melbi (jbo)
• Low German: schöön (nds), scheun (nds)
• Macedonian: убав (mk) (úbav), прекрасен (mk) (prékrasen)
• Malay: cantik (ms), indah (ms), molek (ms)
• Mazanderani: قشنگ, خجیر
• 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)
• Sanskrit: सुन्दर (sa) (sundara), सुरूप (sa) (surūpa)
• Scottish Gaelic: àlainn, bòidheach, brèagha, fèilleil, grinn, maiseach, rìomhach, sgèimheach
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: леп (sh), лијеп (sh)

  Roman: lep (sh), lijep (sh)

• Sinhalese: ලස්සන (si) (lassənə), සුන්දර (si) (sundərə)
• 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)
• Tagalog: maganda (tl)
• 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), xinh đẹp (vi)
• Volapük: jönik (vo), (augmentative) lejönik (vo)
• Walloon: bea (wa) m
• Welsh: hardd (cy), prydferth (cy)
• West Frisian: moai, kreas

of weather: pleasant, clear

• Armenian: հաճելի (hač̣eli)
• Bulgarian: хубав (bg) (hubav)
• 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:

  Sorani: خۆش, فێنک

• Limburgish: sjoen (li)
• Macedonian: убаво (mk) (úbavo) n
• Malay: indah (ms)
• 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)
• Malay: cantik (ms)

• Spanish: bravo (es)

ironic: how unfortunate

• Finnish: loistava (fi)
• German: toll (de), schön (de)
• Hungarian: szép (hu)

• Macedonian: убаво (mk) (úbavo)
• Malay: cantik (ms)

Statistics

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