aesthetic
/ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.02 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance.
noun
The set of artistic motifs defining a collection of things, especially works of art; more broadly, their aura or “vibe”.
Example Sentences
- "It works well enough, but the shabby exterior offends his aesthetic sensibilities."
- "If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere."
- "If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity."
- "But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings."
- "The design of the lobby cannot be considered particularly aesthetic."
- "The station was rebuilt yet again by British Rail in 1967, when large chunks of the 19th century station were demolished and replaced with 'modern' buildings that were less than aesthetic."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis-dʰh₁ Proto-Hellenic *awistʰomai Ancient Greek αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek αἴσθησῐς (aísthēsĭs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ῐκός (-ĭkós) Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós)bor. Latin aesthēticusder. German Ästhetikder. ▲ New Latin aesthēticusbor. French esthétiqueder. English aesthetic From German Ästhetik or French esthétique, both from New Latin aesthēticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós, “of sense perception”), from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthánomai, “to feel”); analysable as aesthe(sis) + -tic. Cognates include Proto-Germanic *awiz (“obvious”), Sanskrit आविस् (āvís, “manifestly, evidently”) and Latin audiō.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɛsˈθɛ.tɪk/
- British English: /iːsˈθɛ.tɪk/
Inflected Forms
more aesthetic (comparative)
most aesthetic (superlative)
æsthetic (alternative, dated)
esthetic (alternative, US)
aesthetics (plural)