the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).
a beautiful person, especially a woman.
a beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.
Often beauties.a beautiful feature or trait in nature or in some natural or artificial environment: the rugged beauties of our seashore and mountains.
an individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm: a vivid blue area that is the one real beauty of the painting.
Informal. a particular advantage: One of the beauties of this medicine is the freedom from aftereffects.
(often used ironically) someone or something that is extraordinary, remarkable, or amazing; a beaut: That sunburn is a real beauty!
something excellent of its kind: My old car, now she was a beauty.
Origin of beauty
First recorded in 1225–75; Middle English be(a)ute, from Old French beaute; replacing Middle English bealte, from Old French beltet, from unattested Vulgar Latin bellitāt- (stem of unattested bellitās ), equivalent to Latin bell(us) “fine” + -itāt- noun suffix; see -ity
English beauty comes from Middle English beaute, beaulte, from Anglo-French bealte, ultimately from an unrecorded Vulgar Latin noun bellitās (stem bellitāt-), a derivative of the Latin adjective bellus “pretty, handsome, charming, fine, pleasant, nice,” which is related to Latin bonus “good, virtuous.” The progression of the various senses is: “(especially of a woman) physical attractiveness, grace, charm” (early 14th century); “(general) moral or intellectual excellence” (late 14th century); “(of a physical object) pleasing to the sight” and “a pleasing or beautiful quality” (both from the 15th century). The colloquial, sometimes ironic sense, especially in the shortened noun beaut, “someone or something extraordinary, remarkable, or amazing,” was originally an Americanism dating to the first half of the 19th century.
OTHER WORDS FROM beauty
non·beau·ty,noun,pluralnon·beau·ties.
Words nearby beauty
beautician, beautiful, beautifully, beautiful people, beautify, beauty, “Beauty and the Beast”, beautyberry, beauty-bush, beauty contest, Beauty is only skin deep