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a beautiful day
a perfect day
a gorgeous day
a nice day
a pretty day
beautiful music
elegant music
pleasant music
pretty music
lovely music
wonderful music
beautiful eyes
amazing eyes
pretty eyes
beautiful scenery
picturesque scenery
pristine scenery
spectacular scenery
breathtaking scenery
exquisite scenery
a beautiful baby
an adorable baby
a cute baby
a precious baby
a lovely baby
a gorgeous baby

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective beautiful differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of beautiful are comely, fair, handsome, lovely, and pretty. While all these words mean "exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure," beautiful applies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses.

beautiful mountain scenery

How are the words comely and handsome related as synonyms of beautiful?

Comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to.

the comely grace of a dancer

When can fair be used instead of beautiful?

The words fair and beautiful are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness.

fair of face

When could handsome be used to replace beautiful?

While in some cases nearly identical to beautiful, handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance.

a handsome Georgian mansion

How do lovely and beautiful relate to one another?

Lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite.

a lovely melody

In what contexts can pretty take the place of beautiful?

The words pretty and beautiful can be used in similar contexts, but pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness.

a painter of conventionally pretty scenes

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of beautiful Lake Tahoe does look beautiful, especially by boat. Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 24 Oct. 2024 But there’s one art form that successfully combines collaboration and improvisation (and math) to create something beautiful. Ariel Katz, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024 From her facial features to her hair, the details are beautiful. Toby Rose, Parents, 24 Oct. 2024 Viviane Quirke: That research center was in a beautiful setting with fields, with sheep, trees. Katie Hafner, Scientific American, 24 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for beautiful 
Recent Examples of Synonyms for beautiful
Adjective
  • Instead of continuing on to Pristine Camp, 14,800 feet high and the highlight of our trip, JSB was able to get my wife to the nearest hospital, provide an interpreter, and manage to get us to a lovely finca at a much lower altitude where my wife recovered in a beautiful setting.
    Kathleen Saxe, The Mercury News, 16 Nov. 2024
  • The Ravel makes several stops in idyllic medieval towns along the Rhône, including Avignon, Viviers, and Arles – the lovely Roman town where Vincent van Gogh created some of his most memorable work.
    James Rampton, theweek, 6 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • Then there’s Cleo’s nervy 30-something daughter, Grace — the wonderful Zoë Geltman — who’s always been the good girl but whose loins are newly afire for her brother-in-law, Roy (Gabriel Brown).
    Sara Holdren, Vulture, 7 Nov. 2024
  • The box includes only a USB-A-to-USB-C cable for charging. Sound: Powerful Bass and Clean Highs Simply put, the Bose SoundLink Home sounds wonderful.
    PCMAG, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • Opening in the same year was the elegant Interlaken Hotel, on the shores of Twin Lakes, a gorgeous but ultimately doomed retreat for well-off visitors.
    James Dziezynski, Outside Online, 10 Nov. 2024
  • Xbox fans should definitely look into getting the gorgeous Razer Wolverine V2 Chroma.
    Gabriela Vatu, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The Beats Studio Pro headphones deliver premium sound quality, excellent noise cancellation, and a sleek, durable design.
    Juhi Wadia, PCMAG, 16 Nov. 2024
  • Later in the day, someone older or more experienced might have excellent advice for you.
    Georgia Nicols, The Denver Post, 14 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The smallest monkey in the world, these cute critters weigh in at just over 4 ounces.
    Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 6 Nov. 2024
  • This floor-through townhouse co-op has a lot of cute details, like the working brick fireplace and the skylights in the kitchen and bathroom.
    Clio Chang, Curbed, 5 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The Webb telescope trained its awesome eye on it for 14 hours total, spread across three months.
    Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 5 Nov. 2024
  • Winning the 2024 World Series is an awesome achievement that will always be remembered and celebrated.
    Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Orange County Register, 5 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • The album is handsome and searching and muscular, and after our talk Gilmour plays most of it onstage at the Bowl while throwing a few familiar bones to the capacity crowd.
    Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2024
  • The one-minute clip, part of the brand’s 28-year-old Generations campaign, featured a handsome young man—early 30s, curly brown hair—at a rooftop party in a city that looked a lot like New York.
    Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 4 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • Greg Corbino—who brought to life the fabulous vulva-scape of Soho Rep’s Snatch Adams and Tainty McCracken last year—designed the show’s costumes and, more strikingly still, its puppets.
    Sara Holdren, Vulture, 10 Nov. 2024
  • Racing went to São Paulo and took the lead within minutes, scoring brilliant goals with two fabulous finishes in Brazil.
    Joseph O'Sullivan, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near beautiful

Cite this Entry

“Beautiful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/beautiful. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on beautiful

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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