Ethereal \E*the"re*al\, a.
1. Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the
higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere;
celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
[1913 Webster]
Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy;
tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as
form, manner, thought, etc.
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Vast chain of being, which from God began,
Natures ethereal, human, angel, man. --Pope.
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3. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether;
as, ethereal salts.
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Ethereal oil. (Chem.) See Essential oil, under
Essential.
Ethereal oil of wine (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid
consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl
sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after
etherification. Called also heavy oil of wine
(distinguished from oil of wine, or [oe]nanthic ether).
Ethereal salt (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a
base; an ester.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
ethereal
adj 1: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as
impalpable or intangible as air; "figures light and
aeriform come unlooked for and melt away"- Thomas
Carlyle; "aerial fancies"; "an airy apparition";
"physical rather than ethereal forms" [syn: aeriform,
aerial, airy, aery]
2: of or containing or dissolved in ether; "ethereal solution"
3: of heaven or the spirit; "celestial peace"; "ethereal
melodies"; "the supernal happiness of a quiet death" [syn:
celestial, supernal]
4: characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy; "this
smallest and most ethereal of birds"; "gossamer shading
through his playing" [syn: gossamer]
WordNet (r) 2.0
229 Moby Thesaurus words for "ethereal":
Elysian, Olympian, adulterated, aerial, aeriform, aerodynamic,
aerostatic, aery, air-built, airish, airlike, airy, alfresco,
altitudinous, ascending, asomatous, aspiring, astral, atmospheric,
attenuate, attenuated, beatific, beatified, blessed, bodiless,
boyish, breezy, bubbly, celestial, chimeric, chimerical,
cloud-born, cloud-built, cloud-woven, colossal, cut, decarnate,
decarnated, delicate, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate,
disembodied, dominating, downy, dreamlike, ectoplasmic, elevated,
eminent, empyreal, empyrean, etheric, exalted, exposed,
extramundane, extraterrestrial, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous,
feathery, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fluffy, foamy,
fragile, frail, from on high, frothy, fuming, fumy, gaseous,
gasified, gasiform, gaslike, gassy, gauzy, ghostish, ghostlike,
ghostly, ghosty, girlish, glorified, gossamer, gossamery, gracile,
haughty, heavenly, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set,
high-up, illusory, imaginary, immaterial, impalpable, imponderable,
imponderous, in glory, incorporate, incorporeal, insubstantial,
intangible, lacy, leger, light, light as air, lighter than vanity,
lofty, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, misty, monumental,
mounting, mousse, nonmaterial, nonphysical, occult, open-air,
otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, oxyacetylene,
oxygenous, ozonic, papery, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac,
paradisic, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantom, phantomic, phantomlike,
pneumatic, prominent, psychic, rare, rarefied, reeking, reeky,
roomy, shadowy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim,
slimmish, slinky, small, smoking, smoky, soaring, souffle,
specterlike, spectral, spiring, spiritual, spirituous, steaming,
steamy, steep, sublime, subtile, subtle, superlative, supernal,
supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied,
thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike,
topless, toplofty, topping, towering, towery, transcendental,
transmundane, tropospheric, uncompact, uncompressed, unearthly,
unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unheavy, unphysical, unreal,
unsubstantial, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, vague, vaporing,
vaporish, vaporlike, vaporous, vapory, volatile, wasp-waisted,
watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy,
wiredrawn, wispy, wraithlike, wraithy, yeasty
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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