Mellifluous, loquacious and scintillating

When thinking of good words, apparently, it's hard to separate them from their meanings. The site alphaDictionary has compiled its selection of the 100 most beautiful words in English (via Nigel Beale) -- in its entirety here or after the jump, with definitions. The list, when recited, is quite beautiful, and the words, for the most part, are familiar rather than obscure: adroit, champagne, dulcet, ebullient, efflorescence, paean, rhapsody.

There is a plethora (on the list) of words whose meanings are halcyon (on the list), even effervescent (on the list). If you try, you can find the negative -- surreptitious and beleaguer are both on the list -- but the victory would be Pyrrhic (on the list); anyone who can't enjoy the serendipity (on the list) of discovering diaphanous and ingenue together (both on the list) risks being called jejune (on the list).

You might have noticed a preponderance (not on the list) of words that don't sound particularly English. There does seem to be a definite Francophile (not on the list) bent to the words that made the grade. Is it the pretty, soft sounds? The unusual vowel pairings? The (not on the list) je ne sais quoi?

I'd suggest two more words for the list: copasetic (all good) and callipygean (I'll let you look it up). What words would you add?

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Lonely Angel CP via Flickr

1	adroit	Dexterous, agile.
2	adumbrate	To very gently suggest.
3	aestivate	To summer, to spend the summer.
4	ailurophile	A cat-lover.
5	beatific	Befitting an angel or saint.
6	beleaguer	To exhaust with attacks.
7	blandiloquent	Beautiful and flattering.
8	caliginous	Dark and misty.
9	champagne	An effervescent wine.
10	chatoyant	Like a cat’s eye.
11	chiaroscuro	The arrangement of dark and light elements in a picture.
12	cockle	A heart-shaped bivalve or a garden flower.
13	colporteur	A book peddler.
14	conflate	To blend together, to combine different things.
15	cynosure	A focal point of admiration.
16	desuetude	Disuse.
17	diaphanous	Filmy.
18	diffuse	Spread out, not focused or concentrated.
19	dulcet	Sweet, sugary.
20	ebullient	Bubbling with enthusiasm.
21	effervescent	Bubbly.
22	efflorescence	Flowering, the opening of buds or a bloom.
23	elixir	A good potion.
24	emollient	A softener.
25	encomium	A spoken or written work in praise of someone.
26	ephemeral	Short-lived.
27	epicure	A person who enjoys fine living, especially food and drink.
28	epiphany	A sudden revelation.
29	erstwhile	At one time, for a time.
30	eschew	To reject or avoid.
31	esculent	Edible.
32	esoteric	Understood only by a small group of specialists.
33	ethereal	Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
34	etiolate	White from no contact with light.
35	evanescent	Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
36	exuberant	Enthusiastic, excited.
37	felicitous	Pleasing.
38	fescue	A variety of grass favored for pastures.
39	foudroyant	Dazzling.
40	fragile	Very, very delicate.
41	fugacioius	Running, escaping.
42	gambol	To skip or leap about joyfully.
43	glamour	Beauty.
44	gossamer	The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
45	halcyon	Happy, sunny, care-free.
46	hymeneal	Having to do with a wedding.
47	imbricate	To overlap to form a regular pattern.
48	imbroglio	An altercation or complicated situation.
49	imbue	To infuse, instill.
50	incipient	Beginning, in an early stage.
51	ingenue	A naive young woman.
52	inglenook	The place beside the fireplace.
53	inspissate	To thicken.
54	inure	To jade.
55	jejune	Dull; childish.
56	lagniappe	A gift given to a customer for their patronage.
57	lagoon	A small gulf or inlet in the sea.
58	languor	Listlessness, inactivity.
59	lassitude	Weariness, listlessness.
60	laughter	The response to something funny.
61	lilt	To move musically or lively, to have a lively sound.
62	lithe	Slender and flexible.
63	loquacious	Talkative.
64	luxuriant	Thick, lavish.
65	mellifluous	Sweet-sounding.
66	missive	A message or letter.
67	moiety	One of two equal parts, a half.
68	mondegreen	A misanalyzed phrase.
69	nebulous	Foggy.
70	niveous	Snowy, snow-like.
71	obsequious	Fawning, subservience.
72	odalisque	A concubine in a harem.
73	oeuvre	A work.
74	offing	That part of the sea between the horizon and the offshore.
75	onomatopoeia	The creation of words by imitating sound.
76	paean	A formal expression of praise.
77	palimpsest	A manuscript written over one or more earlier ones.
78	panacea	A complete solution for all problems.
79	panoply	A complete set.
80	pastiche	A mixture of art work (art or music) from various sources.
81	peccadillo	A peculiarity.
82	pelagic	Related to the sea or ocean.
83	penumbra	A half-shadow, the edge of a shadow.
84	peregrination	Wandering, travels.
85	petrichor	The smell of earth after a rain.
86	plethora	A great excess, overabundance.
87	porcelain	A fine white clay pottery.
88	potamophilous	Loving rivers.
89	propinquity	An inclination or preference.
90	Pyrrhic	Victorious despite heavy losses.
91	quintessential	The ultimate, the essence of the essence.
92	redolent	Sweet-smelling.
93	rhapsody	A beautiful musical piece.
94	riparian	Having to do with the bank of a river or other body of water.
95	ripple	A small, circular wave emanating from a central point.
96	scintillate	To sparkle with brilliant light.
97	sempiternal	Forever and ever.
98	seraglio	Housing for a harem.
99	serendipity	Finding something while looking for something else.
100	surreptitious	Sneaky.

Comments

[Robert B]

soliloquy - from latin - a speech given by an actor as an aside to an audience; talking to oneself

palindrome - from greek - 'running back and forth'; a word spelled the same forward and back

[Antoine Wilson]

adroit? eschew? rhapsody? meh.

deliquesce!

senescence!

love!

; ) AW

[cody mccall]

I think a too-fast growing number of Americans would agree that the three most beautiful words in the English language in January, 2009, are, "you are hired".

[jad]

Perhaps you could come up with an equally mind-numbing and vacuous list of, say, the world's best colors.

[Jim Everett]

In my view, the most beautiful in the list is "mellifluous ".

And the ugliest word in today's conversations? "Like" (as in, "So I was, like, ..."

[Todd in WeHo]

At the risk of sophomoric anal retentiveness or, heaven forbit, sesquipedalianism, I prefer callipygean be spelled callipygian. But then I have often been accused of being logorrheic.

[FS]

You missed "limerence" - an involuntary cognitive and emotional state of intense romantic desire for another person

[Sean B]

"Accrual" has a pleasing sound.

[Gaea Yudron]

pellucid, delightful

[Tom Sullivan]

Adjectives are interestingly over-represented. In some cases, at the expense of a "more beautiful" noun. I'll take quintessence over quintessential in a beauty contest any day. Not sure where "hymeneal" came from. Really? Beautiful? But I'm OK with anything that gets people to pay attention to words a bit more.

[Cant Evan Spell]

affluence, elegance, delicious, exquisite, brilliance, magnanimous, allegorical, philanthropic, daliance, reminisant, melancoly, effervescence

[Numinous]

What am I, chopped liver?

[Mary-Laure]

limerick

fresh

yellow

sassy

[J]

More vocab to learn!
Wonderful list.

[Jim Fitzmaurice]

The definition for propinquity found here is at the margin of definitions in the OED. OED: Propinquity = closeness in space; neighborhood, proximity. I girl I new in high school in Ventura who often used the word, thinking that propinquity would induce romantic preference.

[Benjamin]

salmonella

[Robert]

flacid

[Yank Denny]

Boustrophedonic.

[Paul Dundon]

In what sense are any of the meanings halcyon?

[M Williams]

And let's not forget those nice woody words:
gone, sausage, seemly, prodding, vacuum, bound, foal, recidivist, caribou, intercourse, ocelot, wasp, yowling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwXJsWHupg

[Sam]

Haha -- great article, the way it was written gave me a good laugh. :)

[willythekorn]

OK everyone. Your homework for tonight is to use all 100 words in a sentence.

[Scrabcake]

Enjoyed! Thanks!

[Mary K]

Some words were misspelled and therefore useless. I tried to find petrichor to see how it is pronounced - how wonderful to find a work for the smell of the earth after a rain! but it does not exist. Also fugacioius - how is it really spelled? Did you just make this stuff up? HOWEVER, 'hymeneal' made it all worthwhile. I love that one! Gets right to the heart of the meaning!
Please tell me the correct spelling of petrichor.

[W.V. Feitshans]

William Safire wherefore art thou? Why oh why is the replacement invariably a nattering nabob of nidering conservative chrestomathy?