beautiful

English

Etymology

From Middle English bewteful, beautefull (“attractive to the eye, beautiful”), equivalent to beauty +‎ -ful. In this sense, largely displaced Old English fæġer (whence fair).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: byo͞oʹtĭ-fəl, IPA^(key): /ˈbjuːtɪ.fəl/, /ˈbjuːtɪ.fʊl/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbju.tɪ.fəl/,

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: beau‧ti‧ful

Adjective

beautiful (comparative more beautiful, superlative most beautiful)

1. Attractive and possessing beauty.

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

   There's a beautiful lake by the town.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)‎:

     It is a beautiful kitchen! — It is beautiful.

     Audio (US)

     (file)

2. Good, admirable.

   He was a beautiful person; he would drop everything to help you.

   You've done a beautiful thing today.

3. (of the weather) Pleasant; clear.

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

4. Well executed.

   The skater performed a beautiful axel.

Usage notes

• When used to refer to human appearance, the word is more commonly used for women, with handsome being more common for men, though neither is incorrect. For a man, beautiful could connote a more delicate or androgynous appearance.
• The comparatives beautifuler and beautifuller, and the superlatives beautifulest and beautifullest have also occasionally been used, but are nonstandard.

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 Thesaurus:beautiful

Antonyms

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• beauty
  • See also Thesaurus:beautiful woman

Translations

Noun

beautiful (plural beautifuls)

1. Someone who is beautiful. Can be used as a term of address.

   The man was faithful to his wife, ignoring the many blonde beautifuls who surrounded him wherever he went.

   Hey, beautiful!