Wordsmith collection

Rare & Beautiful Words

by Wordsmith @wordsmith

Fifty of English's most beautiful rare words: sonder, petrichor, mellifluous and more, to savour, collect and actually remember.

• aeonian Alternative spelling of eonian.
• amalgam A mix of different things brought together into one.
• ambrosial Delightfully sweet or fragrant, good enough for the gods.
• blithe Showing no concern about something that really deserves it.
• bombinate to buzz or hum; to speak idly, vacuously, or to little effect.
• bucolic Charming and rustic, like the pleasant side of country life.
• cacophony A mix of loud sounds that clash and hurt the ears.
• chatoyant Having a certain optical reflectance effect, which can be likened to the sheen of a spool of silk.
• clairvoyant A person who can see things beyond the normal senses or foresee the future.
• crepuscular Dim and shadowy, like the light at twilight.
• denouement Alternative spelling of dénouement.
• diaphanous So light and thin that you can see through it.
• dulcet Sweet and pleasant to hear.
• enmity A deep feeling of hatred or hostility toward someone.
• ephemeral Lasting only a short time before it is gone.
• epiphany A sudden realization or discovery that often brings a feeling of awe or wonder.
• epistolary Made of letters, or carried on by writing back and forth.
• epoch A period of history or of a person's life, often a remarkable one.
• ethereal So light and delicate that it seems to belong to another world.
• euphoria A feeling of intense happiness and excitement.
• felicity A state of intense happiness.
• halcyon Calm, peaceful and untroubled.
• idyllic Extremely happy, peaceful, or pretty to look at.
• ineffable Too great or too strange to be described or put into words.
• labyrinthine So full of twists and turns that it is confusing to get through.
• lagom The philosophy or ethos of trying to achieve balance in one's life.
• lilt A cheerful, musical quality in the way someone speaks.
• lucid Clear and easy to understand.
• luminous Giving off light, or lit up so that it shines brightly.
• mellifluous Sweet, smooth and pleasant to hear, usually a voice or a piece of writing.
• nadir The lowest or worst point of something.
• panacea Something believed to solve every problem or cure every illness.
• peccadillo A small fault or petty wrong that hardly matters.
• petrichor The distinctive scent, caused by geosmin, which accompanies the first rain after a long, warm, dry spell.
• phantasmagorical Synonym of phantasmagoric.
• plethora A very large, often too large, amount or number of something.
• quixotic Wildly idealistic and romantic, chasing noble aims with no eye on what works.
• redolent Full of a smell, often a sweet one, or smelling of a certain thing.
• resplendent Shining brightly and looking splendid, colorful and grand.
• sapphire A clear deep blue precious stone.
• schadenfreude The mean pleasure you feel when something bad happens to someone else.
• serendipity Good luck in finding something valuable that you were not looking for.
• serene Calm and peaceful, not troubled by worry.
• solitude The state of being alone, with no one else around.
• sonder The profound feeling of realizing that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as one's own, which they are constantly living despite one's personal lack of awareness of it.
• sonorous Making a deep, rich, ringing sound that fills the ear.
• superfluous More than you need, so it can be left out.
• syzygy A straight-line lineup of three bodies in space, such as the sun, earth and moon.
• zenith The highest point or best moment of something.
• zephyr A light, gentle, refreshing breeze.

Definitions from Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0) and Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).