ethereal

1. 1
   delicateadjective

   Extremely light, airy and delicate, almost spiritlike, as a form, a manner or a thought may be.

   Her ethereal soprano seemed to float above the rest of the choir.

   Morning fog gave the old garden an ethereal look, as if it might vanish at a touch.

   UsageOften with voice, light, grace, beauty: ethereal grace.

   Similarairy, delicate, light, insubstantial, tenuous

   Oppositeheavy, solid, substantial

   Note

   Here the word turns from substance to impression, and it takes degrees: Letitia Elizabeth Landon could write in 1834 of genius taking "its most ethereal form." Where delicate stops at fineness, ethereal adds a hint of spirit, of something barely material. Melville's Pierre (1852) sets "ethereal airiness" against the "heavy unmalleable element" of book-knowledge, the contrast the word lives by. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Landon's quoted passage appeared in 1834, in the first edition of Francesca Carrara. en.wikisource.org
   • The quotation about genius taking its most ethereal form is Landon's narrative prose, rather than a character's speech. en.wikisource.org
   • Herman Melville wrote Pierre, first published in 1852. en.wikipedia.org
   • Pierre's narrator contrasts ethereal airiness with the heavy unmalleable element of book-knowledge; both quoted phrases are exact. gutenberg.org
2. 2
   spirit worldadjective

   Relating to the immaterial realm, which the sky and the regions beyond it symbolize and which earlier ages identified with them.

   The poem imagines the dead rising into an ethereal realm where earthly cares cannot follow.

   In her sermon, the minister urged the congregation to set their minds on ethereal things rather than on money and possessions.

   Similarheavenly, celestial, spiritual, unearthly, otherworldly

   Oppositeearthly, corporeal

   Note

   Dryden spells it etherial, and his "etherial pastures" in The Hind and the Panther (1687) lie overhead and in heaven at once. Now that sky and heaven are kept apart, the word carries only the spiritual side. Its natural opposites are corporeal and earthly, so an ethereal being is one without a body, a stronger claim than the merely airy meaning makes. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • John Dryden wrote The Hind and the Panther, first published in 1687. celm.folger.edu
   • The poem uses the spelling etherial in the exact phrase etherial pastures. en.wikisource.org
   • The pastures refer to heaven, imagined as above the earthly world. en.wikisource.org
3. 3
   upper airadjective

   Relating to the ether, a supposed invisible, air-like element filling all of space, or to the regions high above the earth or beyond its atmosphere.

   Older physics textbooks describe light as a wave traveling through an ethereal medium thought to fill space.

   Nineteenth-century physicists searched for an ethereal medium that they believed carried light through empty space.

   Similaretheric

   Oppositeearthly

   Note

   The physical sense the others grow from: Latin aetherius and Greek aithérios meant "of the upper air," and the Latin could also mean "of heaven." From heaven came the spiritual meaning; from a substance finer than air came the airy, delicate one. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Latin aetherius meant relating to the upper air. en.wiktionary.org
   • Greek aithérios meant relating to the upper air. en.wiktionary.org
   • Latin aetherius could also mean relating to heaven. alatius.com

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