{"id":3875,"date":"2020-11-18T11:48:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T19:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/english-speaking\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2021-04-07T16:53:31","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T23:53:31","slug":"the-ultimate-list-of-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/english-speaking\/the-ultimate-list-of-beautiful-words-in-the-english-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate List of Beautiful Words in the English Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though many people consider Romance languages like French and Italian to be the most beautiful languages in the world, English has plenty of beauty to offer. It all depends on your personal preference. As the saying goes, <\/span>beauty is in the eyes of the beholder<\/span><\/i>. That said, the English language is literally full of beautiful words.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s no easy task to identify the most beautiful words in English. For example, the word “beauty” is a subjective term that can mean different things to different people. Nonetheless, today we hope to provide the ultimate list of beautiful words in the English language!<\/span><\/p>\n

What Makes a Word Beautiful<\/i>?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So, what really makes a word beautiful? It is a difficult question to answer. Many poets, philosophers, and artists have tried to identify and define beauty. However, even some of the greatest minds in human history have struggled to find an answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

Beauty is often highly subjective; what appears beautiful to one person may seem hideous to someone else. However, there are many characteristics that make people consider things \u2014 including words \u2014 to be beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Merriam-Webster\u2019s Dictionary<\/span><\/a>, beauty can be defined as \u201cthe quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit\u201d or something of \u201cparticularly graceful, ornamental, or excellent quality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on these definitions, one might conclude that a beautiful word is a word that provides pleasure to the senses. Since you probably won\u2019t be smelling or tasting words any time soon, this means that the beauty of words can only be found in the sense of sight, sound, and \u2014 for the hearing impaired \u2014 touch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Identifying Beauty in English Words<\/h3>\n

So, for the vast majority of people, words are beautiful based on certain visual and auditory qualities. However, these criteria are somewhat insufficient. After all, there are many words that may not sound or look particularly beautiful, but they have an especially beautiful meaning. This would imply that beauty is not just limited to the senses, but also to our ability to think about the meaning behind different words.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the purpose of creating this list of beautiful words in English, we will need to find a way to identify some qualities that make words beautiful. Again, this is a subjective task, but we will try to add some degree of objectivity to it. Based on the definition of beauty and the fact that words can have beautiful meanings, we will only include words that meet at least one of the following criteria:<\/span><\/p>\n