The English Language's Most Beautiful Words
Eloquent, Evocative Words to Enhance Writing and Speech
Mar 13, 2009
What makes a word beautiful? Attempts to create lists of the most beautiful words in current use have generated selections based on either the elegance of sound and structure or the feelings and concepts the words evoke, or some combination thereof.
Two of the more notable beautiful word lists are language expert Dr. Robert Beard’s compilation of the most beautiful words in the English language and the top-70 favourites generated via a British survey of more than 35,000 people in various countries.
Dr. Beard’s List of the 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language
Dr. Beard’s list, which is posted on his popular AlphaDictionary.com website, contains, for the most part, words that sound beautiful or elegant. Here is a small selection of words from the list, along with synonyms or brief definitions:
- Diffuse – disperse, spread, disseminate
- Effervescent – fizzy, sparkling, bubbling; lively, vibrant, vivacious
- Ephemeral – short-lived, transient, fleeting
- Epiphany – sudden perception or intuitive grasp of meaning or essence; illuminated discovery or realization
- Evanescent – vanishing like vapour
- Gossamer – delicate, sheer, flimsy, filmy, transparent, diaphanous, gauzy
- Halcyon – calm, peaceful, untroubled, quiet, still, heavenly
- Languor – laziness, indolence, slowness, dreaminess, lethargy
- Lassitude – tiredness, exhaustion, inertia, apathy
- Lilt – cadence, inflection
- Luxuriate – enjoy, savour, relish, delight in
- Nebulous – vague, hazy, imprecise, ill-defined
- Panacea – cure-all, universal remedy, magic potion
- Penumbra – partial shade or shadow, obscurity, uncertainty
- Plethora – overabundant, surfeit, excess, glut
- Scintillate – to be brilliant, animated; to sparkle
- Serendipity – chance, destiny, fate, luck, providence, fortune
- Susurrus – rustling or whispering sound
- Symbiosis – cooperative relationship between dissimilar entities
In addition to words that evoke positive feelings such as laughter, champagne, glamour, and whisper, the list also includes a number of relatively obscure words, such as:
- Chatoyant – optical effect in certain gemstones that resembles the eye of a cat
- Encomium – enthusiastic praise
- Peregrination – traveling from place to place, usually on foot, especially via a circuitous route
- Petrichor – the way the earth smells when it rains after a dry spell
- Terpsichorean – a dancer (noun); related to dancing (adjective)
- Tintinnabulation – the ringing of bells
Dr. Beard has also produced a list of the funniest words in the English language, which includes such gems as:
- Brouhaha – commotion, ruckus, brawl
- Cockamamie – trifling, almost valueless; ludicrous, nonsensical
- Discombobulate – confuse, upset
- Flibbertigibbet – flighty, silly individual
- Gobbledygook – nonsense, gibberish, drivel
- Kerfuffle – fuss, commotion
- Malarkey – nonsense, rubbish, gibberish
- Mollycoddle – pamper, spoil, overprotect
- Nincompoop – simpleton, fool
- Rigmarole – meaningless or confused speech; complicated, ritualized procedure
- Shenanigan – mischievous activities
- Skedaddle – run off, get out, bolt, scarper
- Skullduggery – unscrupulous behaviour; devious trick
- Troglodyte – ancient cave dweller; person who has outmoded attitudes
The British Survey of the Most Beautiful Words in the English Language
The British survey, which spanned 46 countries, generated a very different list, with mother taking the number one spot, followed by passion, smile, love, eternity, fantastic, destiny, freedom, liberty, and tranquility. Most additional choices appear to have been made based on what each word evokes rather than the beauty of its inherent structure or sound. Nearly all of the words that were chosen are common and their meanings are well-known to most English speakers. Additional selections from the top 70 include:
- Bliss
- Cherish
- Enthusiasm
- Lullaby
- Sunshine
- Sweetheart
There were also a number of quirky or amusing words that made the cut, such as:
- Bumblebee
- Coconut
- Flabbergasted
- Giggle
- Gum
- Hiccup
- Hippopotamus
- Hodgepodge
- Oi
- Peek-a-boo
- Whoops
- Zing
Beautiful Words That Didn’t Make the Lists
Judging the beauty of a word is a highly subjective process. For a selection of words that did not make either Dr. Beard's list or the British survey's top 70 but have popped up on people’s personal lists of favourites around the Web, see The Most Beautiful Words in the English Language. Word lovers may also wish to read Intelligent Words for Eloquent Writing and Commonly Misused Words.
For the full winning word lists, see Dr. Beard’s 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language (click the link at the bottom of the page for Dr. Beard’s list of the funniest words in the English language) and the British Council’s 70 Most Beautiful Words chosen by survey responders.
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