ether
/ˈi.θɚ/
Frequency: 3.40 in modern English
Meaning
noun
The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.
Countable; Literary; Uncountable
noun
The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.
Countable; Literary; Uncountable
noun
Often as aether and more fully as luminiferous aether: The hypothetical substance permeating space, functioning as a medium for electromagnetic waves to propagate through, and which does not exert resistance to the movement of matter; its existence is incompatible with Einstein's theory of relativity; famously found to be undetectable by the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment.
Uncountable
noun
The atmosphere or space as a medium for broadcasting radio and television signals; also, a notional space through which Internet and other digital communications take place; cyberspace.
Colloquial; Uncountable
noun
A particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere, an aura.
Colloquial; Uncountable
noun
Diethyl ether (C₄H₁₀O), an organic compound with a sweet odour used in the past as an anaesthetic.
Uncountable
noun
Any of a class of organic compounds containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups.
Countable
Example Sentences
- "On Wings the Birds through Æther glide, / And Fiſhes cut with Fins the Tide."
- "Of the mysterious world, that come to me From the elements of Fire and Earth and Water, And the all-nourishing Ether!"
- "Take a snapshot of the conflicts around the world: Sunnis vs. Shiites, Israelis vs. Palestinians, Serbs vs. Kosovars, Indians vs. Pakistanis. They seem to be driven by religious hatred. It’s enough to make you wonder if the animosity would melt away if all religions were suddenly, somehow, to vanish into the ether. But James Carse doesn’t see them as religious conflicts at all. To him, they are battles over rival belief systems, which may or may not have religious overtones."
- "In barely the blink of an eye, the perfectly healthy Judy entered a permanent vegetative state. […] What haunted me was the idea that one moment you’re gazing at your 2-year-old in her playroom and the next, you, the mother, have been whisked off into the ether forever."
- "There’s a very real chance that, rather than crumbling into the dust and floating off into the ether, Thanos’s victims [in the film Avengers: Infinity War] were actually sucked up into the Soul Stone."
- "I ſuppose this æther pervades all groſs bodies, but yet ſo as to ſtand rarer in their pores than in free ſpaces, and ſo much the rarer, as their pores are leſs. And this I ſuppose (with others) to be the cauſe, why light incident on thoſe bodies is refracted towards the perpendicular; […] I ſuppose the rarer æther within bodies, and then denſer without them, not to be terminated in a mathematical ſuperficies, but to grow gradually into one another; […]"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈi.θɚ/
- British English: /ˈiː.θə/