sublimity

Awe-inspiring elevated beauty

Sublimity is the quality of being sublime—elevated, awe-inspiring, or transcendently great.

The word appears in discussions of art, nature, and experience that evoke wonder mixed with vastness or power: the sublimity of mountain peaks, the sublimity of Bach's music.

Where beauty pleases, sublimity overwhelms.

grandeur

magnificence

Impressive beauty or scale

majesty · nobility · monumentality · stateliness · resplendence · opulence · regality · augustness · grandness · impressiveness

philosophical

Kant

German Enlightenment thinker

infinite · incomprehensible · boundless · formless · dynamic · mathematical · noble · fearful

transcendence

ethereal

Delicate beyond earthly measure

metaphysical · otherworldly · infinity · eternity · divinity · bliss · ecstasy · mysticism · satori · salvation

beauty

elegance

Refined, graceful quality

refinement · artistry · loveliness · radiance · perfection · purity · delicacy · splendor · aesthetic · glorious

awe

wonder

Amazement or curiosity

veneration · marvel · overwhelm · speechless · breathtaking · awe-inspiring · humbling · stupendous · staggering · wondrous

nature

mountain

Tall natural landmass

  • oceanMassive saltwater body
  • cosmosOrderly totality of existence
  • auroraAtmospheric light display

sunset · canyon · glacier · waterfall · thunderstorm · chasm · horizon · wilderness · starscape · tempest

Categories
Opposites
aesthetic elevation

sublimitybanality

Tiresome lack of originality

mundanity · ordinariness · triteness · mediocrity · prettiness

moral/spiritual height

sublimitybaseness

Moral worthlessness

degradation · depravity · vileness · ignominy · sordidness

experiential intensity

sublimityvapidity

Lack of liveliness or flavor

shallowness · superficiality · tedium · flatness · triviality

Phrases
Family

subliminal, subliming

Familiarity
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Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Positive · Rated G