How to Use rarefied in a Sentence

rarefied

adjective
  • It's difficult to breathe in the rarefied air near the mountain's peak.
  • The win clinched at least a share of the Big Ten title, putting this team in rarefied air.
    Tyler Tachman, The Indianapolis Star, 20 Feb. 2023
  • The film presents this as simply the way things are among a certain rarefied sliver of the Hong Kong elite.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 13 July 2023
  • Perhaps no object in the art world is more rarefied than a Fabergé egg.
    Stu Woo and Aruna Viswanatha, WSJ, 7 Dec. 2022
  • But on June 15 and 16, the legendary street will become one of the world’s most rarefied parking lots.
    Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 16 June 2022
  • In my actual life, which is a very rarefied life, to be clear.
    Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 28 May 2024
  • The Suns have had some great players over the years; only Charles Barkley is in the same rarefied air as Durant.
    Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2024
  • But even in the rarefied air of triathlon, the privileges of Ironman XC can be a sore subject.
    Devin Gordon, New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022
  • The best of the songs have a translucent quality, a rarefied lyricism.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2021
  • If this merry-go-round seems rarefied, the neighborhood strives for the same tone.
    Michael Tortorello, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2017
  • But one sneaker sitting among their rarefied air caught my eye: the Nike Air Huarache.
    Cam Wolf, GQ, 5 Oct. 2017
  • For him and his rarefied peers, that is most certainly true.
    The Economist, 14 Dec. 2017
  • At its rarefied best, tavern-style defies the laws of physics with crunch and flavor.
    Louisa Chu, Chicago Tribune, 12 Sep. 2022
  • That’s the rarefied air that Denzel Washington lives and breathes in.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 June 2019
  • Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class.
    Oliver Darcy, CNN, 21 Sep. 2023
  • Some of the seaport’s new offerings will be more rarefied than the souvenir shops of old.
    Jane Margolies, New York Times, 22 May 2018
  • The screenplay was written with a very rarefied dialect in mind.
    Selome Hailu, Variety, 24 Aug. 2021
  • That placed Baric in rarefied air: a scapegoat for politicians in both the U.S. and China.
    Dan Werb, Time, 11 July 2023
  • Now the area trades mostly in the rarefied and intangible realm of apps and software.
    Tatiana Schlossberg, The Atlantic, 22 Sep. 2019
  • But even among that rarefied bunch, Mosehla cuts a distinct profile.
    Ryan Lenora Brown, New York Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Collectors of the Swiss watch brand Greubel Forsey breathe the industry’s most rarefied air.
    Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 29 Aug. 2022
  • By reaching the 60-home run plateau alone, Judge entered rarefied air in baseball.
    James Wagner, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2022
  • This will happen high above the Gulf of Mexico in the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere.
    Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 8 Nov. 2023
  • At the top end are rarefied spaces reserved for airline elite.
    Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Aug. 2018
  • The protesters aren’t asking to enter those rarefied realms but to be clerks and sweepers and cops.
    Kushanava Choudhury, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2018
  • A first lady who does not mince her steps, by contrast, can challenge the world from a rarefied platform.
    Adele Stan, New Republic, 19 June 2017
  • Some may view wine as a rarefied world, but being in a room face to face with producers and winemakers, that isn’t the case.
    Karen Lubeck, Town & Country, 4 Mar. 2019
  • As the rare female law student (and student in the rarefied air at the top of the class) — not to mention the rare female lawyer — she was used to being the only one.
    Vanessa Friedman New York Times, Star Tribune, 21 Sep. 2020
  • In this rarefied terroir, Dakanali says assyrtiko is king, accounting for 80% of the vines.
    Rachel King, Forbes, 18 Sep. 2024
  • Roberts even compared this series comeback win to a couple of three-games-to-one deficits that his teams have overcome, elevating Friday night to rarefied air.
    Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rarefied.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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