Most Beautiful English Words

[tulosai]

What do you consider to be the most beautiful English words?

I've always liked the word 'alliteration' 'umbrella' and 'ailurophile'.

What words do you consider to be pretty?

[Gregor]

I've always thought of lollipop as being a pretty, innocent word.

[LauraM]

Those are all beautiful words!  Here are some of my favorites:

Eloquent =  well-spoken

Mellifluous = sweet, pleasant to listen to

Resplendent = attractive, dazzling to look at

Transmogrification = to change into a different shape or form

[SarahRTW]

I like big words, and I cannot lie

Infinitesimal = extremely small

Phantasmagorical  (one of my all-time faves) = fantastic, fantasy-like events or images.  Something surreal.

Elephantine = very huge, like an elephant

[sayitwell]

Ilove the word anomie.  It means to lose all sense of community, identity and importance.  Hence the phrase anomic suicide.

I also like the word nihilist.  It means to lose faith in the sincerity, honesty and dignity of surrounding people and social structures. 

Both words accurately describe the general populace's attitude toward life in the 21st century as well as the feel of life in a global capitalist economic system.

[H_Bachman]

Ilove the word anomie.  It means to lose all sense of community, identity and importance.  Hence the phrase anomic suicide.

I love the word anomie too!  I can see some uneducated parent (who didn't know about Durkheim's work on anomie or what it means) deciding to name their baby girl that.  Anomie-- doesn't that sound like a girl's name?

[thekernel]

I can't remember who told me this, but "cellardoor" has the least unattractive sounds of most words in our language. Conversely, a word like "burgle" would be considered very ugly.

"Luminary" is a very sweet sounding word as well.

[Daedalus]

I thought about "cellar door" as well, when I saw this thread. It is referred to in the film "Donnie Darko".

It's said to have been the favourite word of Edgar Allen Poe (and that the closest thing to it he could think of was "Nevermore" in the Raven).

[limon]

Lullaby

It's the perfect sound for what it is, has warm associations, and even if it meant something else it would still be lovely.

[Eudora13]

Ilove the word anomie.  It means to lose all sense of community, identity and importance.  Hence the phrase anomic suicide.

I also like the word nihilist.  It means to lose faith in the sincerity, honesty and dignity of surrounding people and social structures. 

Both words accurately describe the general populace's attitude toward life in the 21st century as well as the feel of life in a global capitalist economic system.

I love both these words too! Funny that you should mention them both together.. I liked anomie and nihilism ever since I started studying post modernism in literature.

Besides those I also like efflorescence, dalliance, ephemeral, ethereal, sumptuous, era, elixir....can't think of more right now. I think I like words beginning with 'e'..

[SpiralArchitect]

The word translucence sounds somewhat beautiful. I am sure everyone knows what it means.

The words elucidate, effervescence, crooning and acoustic also sound very pretty.

[thekernel]

I thought of a couple more:

"Sullen"

"Sallow"

"Aura"

"Emeritus"

"Clef"

[GetFresh]

I really like the word "leisure". It means free time. I certainly don't have too much of it. The word just rolls  off your tongue, and I find it fun to say for some reason. Call me weird then.

[thekernel]

How could I forget the most beautiful word of all, "soliloquy" (so-li-lo-kwee). Shakespearean word if I recall correctly.

[ashishkashyap25]

I used to use "vocabulary.com" to grab some words, no doubt it helped me a lot.

I have learned so many words and some beautiful words among them are

Bourgeois, futile, subtle, vapid and lots more... :speechless:

[MyDigitalpoint]

I don't have a favorite beautiful English word, but I have like a dozen of words that sounds terribly not just to my hears but to my pronunciation.

These words include obnoxious and awkward, which are the worst to me.

[Trellum]

There are several english words I really like   Here is a short list of them:

- Myriad

- Plethora

- Diaphanous

- Effervescent

- Elixir

- Ethereal

- Furtive

- Harbinger

- Lissome

[rahimbahrain]

MOTHER

I think MOTHER is the most beautiful word in English language.

In fact, in a survey conducted by British Council among 40,000 overseas voters as to the most beautiful word in English, MOTHER topped the list hands down...!

As a matter of fact,  out of  the top words,  MOTHER was the only word that defined a direct relationship among people.

Long live all mothers of  the world 

[stutin]

There are many words that can be considered to be beautiful in English language, I am not sure where to start and how to list them....one of many is 'acrobatic', 'enchanting' I am not sure and many more....

[LauraM]

MOTHER

I think MOTHER is the most beautiful word in English language.

In fact, in a survey conducted by British Council among 40,000 overseas voters as to the most beautiful word in English, MOTHER topped the list hands down...!

As a matter of fact,  out of  the top words,  MOTHER was the only word that defined a direct relationship among people.

Long live all mothers of  the world 

That's a fascinating study.  Thanks for sharing that with us.  How wonderful that it is "mother" that has such an appeal to what obviously had to have been a diverse sampling of people, both geographically and culturally. I agree, it's a beautiful word!

This reminds me of an earlier discussion we had here on the forum in which we remarked about the similarity of the word for "mama"  -- as well as "papa" -- worldwide. 

You can see that thread here:

http://linguaholic.com/general-discussion/world-languages-the-words-%27mama-and-papa%27/msg1531/#msg1531

[JoeDirt]

For me, the most beautiful word is "lullaby: a quiet song to lull a child to sleep", everything about it is beautiful not just the word 

[Elizabethr6144]

This is a tough question because there are so many beautiful words in the English language. I love the word cedar. I just think it sounds so profound. I also like the word sensible I just like the way it sounds ad how it feels when you say it.

[JessiFox]

It's said that cellar door is supposed to be exceptionally beautiful, but I'm not sure I find that to be the case. I love requiem, celestial and allegory.

[xXPandosXx]

I have to agree, myriad is a beautiful word. It comes from the Greek word Myrias, and it means ten thousand.

Most people use it to describe a very large, indefinite number, however the modern Greek word for "million" is translated as "hundred-myriads".

[pandandesign]

I can't remember who told me this, but "cellardoor" has the least unattractive sounds of most words in our language. Conversely, a word like "burgle" would be considered very ugly.

"Luminary" is a very sweet sounding word as well.

Luminary does sound very sweet. I like the sound of it already!! I haven't heard the word "burgle" before. I will check out the dictionary to find out the meaning. Great post!