beauty

SayBYOO-tee/ˈbjuti/UK/ˈbjuːti/

Pluralbeauties (some meanings)

11 meanings of beauty

1
noununcountable
The quality or features that make someone or something attractive and pleasing, especially to look at.
The beauty of the old cathedral drew visitors from across the country.
Critics praised the painting for its quiet, understated beauty.
UsageUsually without a: admired for her beauty. A beauty means a beautiful person or a fine example.
Similarloveliness, attractiveness, splendor, elegance, grace
Oppositeugliness
Note
Keats's 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever' shows the abstract, uncountable use: beauty as a quality in itself, rather than a beautiful thing you could count.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Keats wrote ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’, the opening line of Endymion. en.wikisource.org
2
cosmeticsnouncountable or uncountable
The practice or business of cosmetic treatment and care of personal appearance.
She built a long career in beauty, specializing in skin care.
The college offers diplomas in beauty alongside its hairdressing courses.
UsageOften before another noun: beauty salon, beauty products, beauty industry. Alone, people work in beauty.
Similarcosmetics
3
nouncountable or uncountable
An especially fine or outstanding example of something, sometimes used ironically of something remarkably bad.
The carpenter handed me a beauty of a chest, smooth on every edge.
Of all the houses we toured, that little cottage was a beauty.
UsageCommon as a real beauty or a beauty of a thing.
Similargem, stunner, treasure
4
attractive personnouncountable or uncountable
A person who is strikingly beautiful.
He married a renowned beauty whose portrait still hangs in the hall.
Photographers chased the rising beauty from one event to the next.
UsageUsually said of women: a great beauty, a famous beauty.
Similarbelle, stunner, looker, knockout
5
clever partnouncountable or uncountable
A particularly good or advantageous feature of something.
The beauty of the strategy lay entirely in its simplicity.
Investors admired the beauty of a deal that protected both sides at once.
UsageUsually the beauty of something, often followed by is that: the beauty of the plan is that it costs nothing.
Similargenius, brilliance, elegance, advantage
Note
What it praises is how neatly something works, not how it looks, so it suits plans, arrangements and solutions.

Less common meanings

6
really greatadjectiveCanada
Of high quality; excellently done or made.
She played a beauty pass that split the defense wide open.
He scored a beauty goal in the last minute of the game.
UsageGoes before the noun: a beauty goal, a beauty pass.
Similarexcellent, great, superb, fine, cracking
Oppositepoor, terrible, lousy
Note
Canadian usage also lets the noun stand before another noun as a word of praise. A beauty pass through the neutral zone is a well-made play on the ice.
7
interjectionCanada
Used to express approval, delight, satisfaction, or thanks.
The rain's stopped and the sun's out. Beauty!
"Tickets are sorted for Saturday." "Beauty, can't wait."
UsageSaid on its own after good news, much like great or cool: Beauty, can't wait.
Similargreat
8
nounobsoletecountable or uncountable
The prevailing style, taste, or fashion of the time.
Menander in the comedy brings in a man turning his wife from his house, because she stained her hair yellow, which was then the beauty.
1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year,
Note
In this obsolete use, the beauty meant whatever was in fashion. Jeremy Taylor in 1653 retells Menander's comedy of a man who turns out his wife for staining her hair yellow, 'which was then the beauty'. In other words, yellow hair was the look of the moment. The modern equivalent is the rage, as in all the rage. A present-day reader would take beauty here simply as attractiveness.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Beauty formerly meant the prevailing fashion or taste. en.wiktionary.org
The Taylor work containing this passage was first published in 1653. natlib.govt.nz
Taylor recounts the incident as coming from Menander and uses the exact quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
Taylor's phrase describes yellow hair as the prevailing fashion. en.wiktionary.org
9
nounarchaiccountable or uncountableplural
Beautiful passages or extracts drawn from poetry.
Note
An archaic plural for the choice passages of a poem: the lines worth lifting out and admiring on their own. It is close kin to the beauty of features, but here the parts are pieces of text. Readers meet it in older criticism.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The archaic plural beauties denotes beautiful passages or extracts of poetry. en.wiktionary.org
This sense occurs in older literary criticism. gutenberg.org
10
verbobsoletetransitive
To make beautiful; to adorn or enhance the appearance of something.
Note
An obsolete verb that once made beauty an action: to beauty a room was to adorn it. Beautify, built with the verb-making -ify, took over the job, and beautied now reads as an error.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Beauty was a transitive verb meaning to make beautiful or adorn, and is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
Beautify contains the suffix -ify. en.wiktionary.org
The suffix -ify forms verbs. en.wiktionary.org
11
noundatedcountable or uncountable
An elementary particle of the quark family, now known as the bottom quark.
Note
Particle physicists call this quark beauty or bottom; bottom is now the more common name. The two names share an initial, so the abbreviation b quark serves either one. Beauty still appears in current research and in names such as CERN's LHCb, the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment, and it means the same particle.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Both names begin with b, and b quark can denote either name. atlas-public.web.cern.ch
CERN's LHCb stands for Large Hadron Collider beauty. home.cern
Beauty and bottom name the same particle. atlas-public.web.cern.ch

Practice

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Origin

It comes from Middle English bewty, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté, from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem ("beauty"), which traces back to Latin bellus ("beautiful, fair"). It largely replaced the native Old English fæġernes, the source of Modern English fairness.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

Beauty comes through Middle English bewty from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté. en.wiktionary.org
The French word derives from reconstructed Vulgar Latin bellitātem, meaning beauty, ultimately from Latin bellus, meaning beautiful or fair. en.wiktionary.org
Beauty largely displaced the native Old English word fæġernes. en.wiktionary.org
Modern English fairness descends from Old English fæġernes. en.wiktionary.org