pulchritudinous

English

WOTD – 2 April 2006

Etymology

Latin pulchritūdō (“pulchritude”) +‎ -ous, from pulcher (“beautiful”) + -tūdō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpʌlkɹɪˈtjuːdɪnəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

pulchritudinous (comparative more pulchritudinous, superlative most pulchritudinous)

1. (literary) Having great physical beauty.
   • 1994, Orson Scott Card, The Ships of Earth‎^[1]:

     But Shedemei had long since grown out of her adolescent jealousy of pulchritudinous girls.

   • 1966, Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress‎^[2]:

     “The first example in each series,” Mike offered, “would be, on the basis of my associational analyses of such data, of such pulchritudinous value as to please any healthy, mature human male.”

   • 1998, Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in a Flamingo Fedora‎^[3]:

     “I had standing instructions to let any pulchritudinous females into Mr. Cooke’s dressing room,” Mike admitted.
     “Pulchritudinous? He really said that?”
     “No, I said that.”

2. (obsolete, rare) That endows pulchritude; beautifying.

Synonyms

• comely

Derived terms

• pulchritudinously

Related terms

• pulchritude

Translations

having great physical beauty

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 美麗／美丽 (zh) (měilì)

• Danish: fager
• Finnish: hyvännäköinen (fi)
• French: somptueux (fr) m
• Greek:

  Ancient: καλός (kalós)

• Hebrew: יפה תואר
• Icelandic: fagur (is) m, fallegur (is) m
• Japanese: 美しい (ja)
• Latin: pulcher (la)
• Polish: urodziwy (pl)