empyrean
/ɛmˌpaɪˈɹiːn̩/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.98 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to be a region of pure light and fire or else composed of ether, and sometimes seen as the dwelling-place of God or other divine beings; the highest celestial sphere according to ancient and medieval astronomy.
adj
Of the sky or the heavens, and particularly relating to the highest celestial sphere in premodern cosmology; celestially refined.
adj
French: empyréen (fr)
Example Sentences
- "So ſung they, and the Empyrean rung, With Halleluiahs: […]"
- "Perchance they mark Where India's cliffs the trembling cloud invade, Or Andes with his fiery banner flouts The empyrean,..."
- "Milton, a name to resound for ages; / Whose titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel, / Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries, / Tower, the deep-domed empyrëan / Rings to the roar of an angel onset— […]"
- "I could have spoken in blank verse of Shakesperian beauty, all sorts of great ideas flashed through my mind; it was as though the bonds of my flesh had been loosened and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of its native power."
- "Her vulgar cares were at an end. She would be able to arrange her life as she pleased, to soar into that empyrean of security where creditors cannot penetrate."
- "This particular evening, if it remembered for nothing else, will be remembered in that place for its strange sunset. […] The whole was so close about the earth, as if to express nothing but a violent secrecy. The very empyrean seemed to be a secret."
Etymology
From Latin empȳreus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπύριος (empúrios), from ἐν (en, “in”) + πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) (whence English pyre).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: empȳreus, ἐμπύριος
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Astronomy.
Inflected Forms
empyreans (plural)
relating to the highest heaven — see also empyreal (canonical)