ethereal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: e=the=re=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

ethereal, a. 

•  Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.  [1913 Webster]

  "Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger."  [1913 Webster]
•  Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.  [1913 Webster]

  "Vast chain of being, which from God began,
  Natures ethereal, human, angel, man."  [1913 Webster]
•  Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether; as, ethereal salts.  [1913 Webster]

Ethereal oil. (Chem.) See Essential oil, under Essential. -- Ethereal oil of wine (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after etherification. Called also heavy oil of wine (distinguished from oil of wine, or œnanthic ether). -- Ethereal salt (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a base; an ester.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ethereal, adj. (also etherial)
1 light, airy.
2 highly delicate, esp. in appearance.
3 heavenly, celestial.
4 Chem. of or relating to ether.

Derivative

ethereality n. ethereally adv.

Etymology

L aethereus, -ius f. Gk aitherios (as ETHER)

THESAURUS

ethereal

Elysian, Olympian, adulterated, aerial, aeriform, aerodynamic, aerostatic, aery, air-built, airish, airlike, airy, alfresco, altitudinous, ascending, asomatous, aspiring, astral, atmospheric, attenuate, attenuated, beatific, beatified, blessed, bodiless, boyish, breezy, bubbly, celestial, chimeric, chimerical, cloud-born, cloud-built, cloud-woven, colossal, cut, decarnate, decarnated, delicate, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate, disembodied, dominating, downy, dreamlike, ectoplasmic, elevated, eminent, empyreal, empyrean, etheric, exalted, exposed, extramundane, extraterrestrial, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous, feathery, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fluffy, foamy, fragile, frail, from on high, frothy, fuming, fumy, gaseous, gasified, gasiform, gaslike, gassy, gauzy, ghostish, ghostlike, ghostly, ghosty, girlish, glorified, gossamer, gossamery, gracile, haughty, heavenly, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set, high-up, illusory, imaginary, immaterial, impalpable, imponderable, imponderous, in glory, incorporate, incorporeal, insubstantial, intangible, lacy, leger, light, light as air, lighter than vanity, lofty, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, misty, monumental, mounting, mousse, nonmaterial, nonphysical, occult, open-air, otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, oxyacetylene, oxygenous, ozonic, papery, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac, paradisic, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantom, phantomic, phantomlike, pneumatic, prominent, psychic, rare, rarefied, reeking, reeky, roomy, shadowy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, smoking, smoky, soaring, souffle, specterlike, spectral, spiring, spiritual, spirituous, steaming, steamy, steep, sublime, subtile, subtle, superlative, supernal, supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, topless, toplofty, topping, towering, towery, transcendental, transmundane, tropospheric, uncompact, uncompressed, unearthly, unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unheavy, unphysical, unreal, unsubstantial, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, vague, vaporing, vaporish, vaporlike, vaporous, vapory, volatile, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy, wraithlike, wraithy, yeasty

ROGET THESAURUS

ethereal

Unsubstantiality

N unsubstantiality, insubstantiality, nothingness, nihility, no degree, no part, no quantity, no thing, nothing, naught, nil, nullity, zero, cipher, no one, nobody, never a one, ne'er a one, no such thing, none in the world, nothing whatever, nothing at all, nothing on earth, not a particle, all talk, moonshine, stuff and nonsense, matter of no importance, matter of no consequence, thing of naught, man of straw, John Doe and Richard Roe, faggot voter, nominis umbra, nonentity, flash in the pan, vox et praeterea nihil, shadow, phantom, dream, ignis fatuus, such stuff as dreams are made of, air, thin air, vapor, bubble, baseless fabric of a vision, mockery, hollowness, blank, void, inanity, fool's paradise, unsubstantial, baseless, groundless, ungrounded, without foundation, having no foundation, visionary, immaterial, spectral, dreamy, shadowy, ethereal, airy, cloud built, cloud formed, gossamery, illusory, insubstantial, unreal, vacant, vacuous, empty, eviscerated, blank, hollow, nominal, null, inane, there's nothing in it, an ocean of dreams without a sound.

Levity

N levity, lightness, imponderability, buoyancy, volatility, feather, dust, mote, down, thistle, down, flue, cobweb, gossamer, straw, cork, bubble, balloon, float, buoy, ether, air, leaven, ferment, barm, yeast, lighter-than-air balloon, helium balloon, hydrogen balloon, hot air balloon, convection, thermal draft, thermal, light, subtile, airy, imponderous, imponderable, astatic, weightless, ethereal, sublimated, gossamery, suberose, suberous, uncompressed, volatile, buoyant, floating, portable, light as a feather, light as a thistle, light as air, lighter than air, rise like a balloon, float like a balloon.

Gaseity

N gaseity, vaporousness, flatulence, flatulency, volatility, aeration, aerification, elastic fluid, gas, air, vapor, ether, steam, essence, fume, reek, effluvium, flatus, cloud, ammonia, ammoniacal gas, volatile alkali, vacuum, partial vacuum, pneumatics, pneumatostatics, aerostatics, aerodynamics, gasmeter, gasometer, air bladder, swimming bladder, sound, (of a fish), gaseous, aeriform, ethereal, aerial, airy, vaporous, volatile, evaporable, flatulent.