One who possesses vivacity, wit, good nature, or other pleasing qualities may be attractive without beauty. The word applies wholly to what is superficial we can say " fair, yet false." In a specific sense, fair has the sense of blond, as opposed to dark or brunette. Fair denotes what is bright, smooth, clear, and without blemish as, a fair face. Handsome is a term far inferior to beautiful we may even say a handsome villain. That is handsome which is not only superficially pleasing, but well and harmoniously proportioned, with usually the added idea that it is made so by art, breeding, or training as, a handsome horse a handsome house. Pretty expresses in a far less degree that which is pleasing to a refined taste in objects comparatively small, slight, and dainty as, a pretty bonnet a pretty girl. Beautiful has the further limit of not transcending our powers of appreciation. But beautiful implies also, in concrete objects, softness of outline and delicacy of mold it is opposed to all that is hard and rugged, hence we say a beautiful woman, but not a beautiful man. Thus, we speak of a beautiful landscape, a beautiful poem. There must also be harmony and unity, and in human beings spiritual loveliness, to constitute an object or a person really beautiful. The definition of beauty, "perfection of form," is a good key to the meaning of beautiful, if we understand "form" in its widest sense. Marvellous, great, nice, just, bloody, intensifier, marvelous, damned, wonderful Miserable, cloudy, rainy, wet, overcast, dull, bad Ugly, misshapen, repulsive, plain, grotesque, homely, hideous Perfect, good, marvellous, great, stylish, exceptional, wonderful, marvelous, excellentīeauteous, cute, hot, handsome, gorgeous, lovely, attractive, shapely, pretty, nice-looking, fair, good-looking, fit, sheen (as a pro-sentence ironic) How unfortunate that is!īeautiful! I dropped the soup on the floor! Wonderful, good, marvellous, excellent, perfect, marvelous, exceptional, great, stylish (as a pro-sentence) How beautiful that is!īeautiful! What a catch! (referring to an athlete catching a ball) Shoddy, average, poor, bad, mediocre, terrible, substandard, weak Good, stylish, marvellous, exceptional, excellent, marvelous, great, wonderful, perfect Wonderful, great, stylish, perfect, good, excellent, marvelous, marvellous, exceptional It's beautiful outside, let's go for a walk. Perfect, excellent, exceptional, marvellous, wonderful, stylish, good, great, marvelous Wiktionary (3.54 / 19 votes) Rate these synonyms: