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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

ethereal

/ɪˈθɪɚ.i.əl/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:49
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What does ethereal mean?

adjective

  1. Pertaining to the presupposition of an invisible air-like element permeating all of space, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere.
  2. Pertaining to the immaterial realm, as symbolically represented by, or (in earlier epochs) conflated with, such atmospheric and extra-atmospheric concepts.
  3. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
More meanings (1)

noun

  1. Ellipsis of ethereal wave (“music genre”).

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ɪˈθɪɚ.i.əl/

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other dictionary pronunciations

/iˈθɪɚ.i.əl/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

This bit of forest might have appeared to an ethereal wanderer as a scene of the result of some frightful debauch.
Stephen CraneThe Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil WarProject Gutenberg ebook #73
In certain directions, therefore, the imagination is too weak to conceive an ethereal being in human form floating in the air.
Hans GrossCriminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and StudentsTranslated by Horace Meyer KallenProject Gutenberg ebook #1320
More book examples (3)
Although one never hears it at its best during the migrations, how one loves to recall the serene, ethereal evening hymn!
Neltje BlanchanBird Neighbors An Introductory Acquaintance with One Hundred and Fifty Birds Commonly Found in the Gardens, Meadows, and Woods About Our HomesProject Gutenberg ebook #1889
It may be that among them a more fervid Keats, a more ethereal Shelley, has already published numbers the world will willingly remember.
W. Somerset (William Somerset) MaughamThe Moon and SixpenceProject Gutenberg ebook #222
Whether there are any bounds at all to this ethereal ocean, or whether it is as infinite as space itself, we cannot surmise.
John FiskeThe Unseen World, and Other EssaysProject Gutenberg ebook #1486