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aesthetically

adverbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,427 of 15,258leans written

Aesthetically means in terms of beauty and how something looks. Aesthetically pleasing, aesthetically it fails, aesthetically similar.

Aesthetically pleasing is the fixed phrase and is used of everything from buildings to spreadsheets. The word marks a judgement about appearance as against usefulness, which is why designers reach for it constantly.

Definitions of aesthetically

  1. 1adverbaestheticallyIn terms of beauty and how something looks.C1

    “The new bridge is strong and practical, but aesthetically it's rather ugly.”

aesthetically is a manner.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂ew-

  2. German

    Ästhetik

  3. English

    aesthetic

  4. English, today

    aesthetically

Built from

  • αἰσθάνομαι · Ancient Greek — to feel

From aesthetic + -ally. aesthetic comes from German Ästhetik. From German Ästhetik or French esthétique, both from New Latin aesthēticus, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (“of sense perception”), from αἰσθάνομαι (“to feel”); analysable as aesthe(sis) + tic. Cognates include Proto-Germanic awiz (“obvious”), Sanskrit आविस् (“manifestly, evidently”) and Latin audiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

aesthetically in the wild

  • The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material.

    Brownstone

  • Expert chefs are in charge of making meals that are both aesthetically beautiful and delicious.

    Culinary arts

  • Most of the time, aesthetically attractive species are pictured, but some stamps also feature pests.

    Insects on stamps

  • The third tower, completed within a year, is structurally and aesthetically similar to both original towers.

    The Astor

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the Ästhetik family

aestheticaesthetically

aesthetically — used about once every 13,896 pages · #12,427 · point at the bar for the others