Dr. Goodword (Dr. Robert Beard) of AlphaDictionary.com, offers a list of the "The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English"; except he couldn't keep it to 100, it went to 110! I admit, I don't use most of these words, routinely if ever. How about you? Do you have a Beautiful Word you love?
The List
1. adroit - Dexterous, agile.
2. adumbrate - To very gently suggest.
3. aestivate - To summer, to spend the summer.
4. ailurophile - A cat-lover.
5. beatific - Befitting an angel or saint.
6. beleaguer - To exhaust with attacks.
7. blandiloquent - Beautiful and flattering.
8. caliginous - Dark and misty.
9. champagne - An effervescent wine.
10. chatoyant - Like a cat's eye.
11. chiaroscuro - The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
12. cockle - A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
13. colporteur - A book peddlar.
14. conflate - To blend together, to combine different things.
15. cynosure - A focal point of admiration.
16. desuetude - Disuse.
17. diaphanous - Filmy.
18. diffuse - Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
19. dulcet - Sweet, sugary.
20. ebullient - Bubbling with enthusiasm.
21. effervescent - Bubbly.
22. efflorescence - Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
23. elixir - A good potion.
24. emollient - A softener.
25. encomium - A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
26. ephemeral - Short-lived.
27. epicure - A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
28. epiphany - A sudden revelation.
29. erstwhile - At one time, for a time.
30. eschew - To reject or avoid.
31. esculent - Edible.
32. esoteric - Understood only by a small group of specialists.
33. ethereal - Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
34. etiolate - White from no contact with light.
35. evanescent - Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
36. exuberant - Enthusiastic, excited.
37. felicitous - Pleasing.
38. fescue - A variety of grass favored for pastures.
39. foudroyant - Dazzling.
40. fragile - Very, very delicate.
41. fugacioius - Running, escaping.
42. gambol - To skip or leap about joyfully.
43. glamour - Beauty.
44. gossamer - The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk.
45. halcyon - Happy, sunny, care-free.
46. hymeneal - Having to do with a wedding.
47. imbricate - To overlap to form a regular pattern.
48. imbroglio - An altercation or complicated situation.
49. imbue - To infuse, instill.
50. incipient - Beginning, in an early stage.
51. ingenue - A naïve young woman.
52. inglenook - The place beside the fireplace.
53. inspissate - To thicken.
54. inure - To jade.
55. jejune - Dull; childish.
56. lagniappe - A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
57. lagoon - A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
58. languor - Listlessness, inactivity.
59. lassitude - Weariness, listlessness.
60. laughter - The response to something funny.
61. lilt - To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
62. lithe - Slender and flexible.
63. loquacious - Talkative.
64. luxuriant - Thick, lavish.
65. mellifluous - Sweet-sounding.
66. missive - A message or letter.
67. moiety - One of two equal parts, a half.
68. mondegreen - A misanalyzed phrase.
69. nebulous - Foggy.
70. niveous - Snowy, snow-like.
71. obsequious - Fawning, subservience.
72. odalisque - A concubine in a harem.
73. oeuvre - A work.
74. offing - That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
75. onomatopoeia - The creation of words by imitating sound.
76. paean - A formal expression of praise.
77. palimpsest - A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
78. panacea - A complete solution for all problems.
79. panoply - A complete set.
80. pastiche - A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
81. peccadillo - A peculiarity.
82. pelagic - Related to the sea or ocean.
83. penumbra - A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
84. peregrination - Wandering, travels.
85. petrichor - The smell of earth after a rain.
86. plethora - A great excess, overabundance.
87. porcelain - A fine white clay pottery.
88. potamophilous - Loving rivers.
89. propinquity - An inclination or preference.
90. Pyrrhic - Victorious despite heavy losses.
91. quintessential - The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
92. redolent - Sweet-smelling.
93. rhapsody - A beautiful musical piece.
94. riparian - Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
95. ripple - A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
96. scintillate - To sparkle with brilliant light.
97. sempiternal - Forever and ever.
98. seraglio - Housing for a harem.
99. serendipity - Finding something while looking for something else.
100. surreptitious - Sneaky.
BONUS WORDS
101. sussurous - Producing a hushing sound, like flowing water.
102. symbiosis - Interdependence of two different species.
103. syzygy - The direct opposition of two heavenly bodies.
104. talisman - A symbolic object believed to have magical powers.
105. terpsichorean - Related to dance.
106. tintinnabulation - Ringing.
107. umbrageous - Shady.
108. vestige - A small fragment.
109. whisper - Speaking without vibrating the vocal folds.
110. zyzzyva - A kind of beetle.
One of my favorite beautiful words is one you can spell frontwards or backwards and get the same result. BOB. What's on your list?
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