Word of the Day
: August 1, 2021pulchritude
playWhat It Means
: physical comeliness
pulchritude in Context
The magazine features a photo essay of celebrities who are famed for their Hollywood stardom and pulchritude.
"Sadly, Renee's judgment on Mrs. Appleyard's baby's pulchritude, or lack of it, turned out to be true—he was an 'ugly little thing.'" — Kate Atkinson, Life After Life: A Novel, 2013
Did You Know?
Pulchritude is a descendant of the Latin adjective pulcher, which means "beautiful." Pulcher hasn't exactly been a wellspring of English terms, but it did give English both pulchritude and pulchritudinous, an adjective meaning "attractive" or "beautiful." The verb pulchrify (a synonym of beautify), the noun pulchritudeness (same meaning as pulchritude), and the adjective pulchrous (meaning "fair or beautiful") are other pulcher offspring, but those terms have proved that, in at least some linguistic cases, beauty is fleeting.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Quiz
Beau is a French borrowing of a word that describes a man as "good-looking." What is the equivalent French adjective for a woman?
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