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Beautiful:
beau·ti·ful Pronunciation Key (byt-fl)
adj.
Having qualities that delight the senses, especially the sense of sight.
Excellent; wonderful.
beauti·ful·ly adv. beauti·ful·ness
n.
Synonyms: beautiful, lovely, pretty, handsome, comely, fair
1 All these adjectives apply to what excites aesthetic admiration. Beautiful
is most comprehensive: a beautiful child; a beautiful painting; a beautiful
mathematical proof. Lovely applies to what inspires emotion rather than
intellectual appreciation: “They were lovely, your eyes” (George
Seferis). What is pretty is beautiful in a delicate or graceful way: a
pretty face; a pretty song; a pretty room. Handsome stresses poise and
dignity of form and proportion: a very large, handsome paneled library.
“She is very pretty, but not so extraordinarily handsome” (William
Makepeace Thackeray). Comely suggests wholesome physical attractiveness:
“Mrs. Hurd is a large woman with a big, comely, simple face”
(Ernest Hemingway). Fair emphasizes freshness or purity: “In the
highlands, in the country places,/Where the old plain men have rosy faces,/And
the young fair maidens/Quiet eyes” (Robert Louis Stevenson).
courtesy
of dictionary.com
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