aesthetics
noun
Form of aesthetic , plural of aesthetic.
Simple meaning
The study or philosophy of beauty.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehsthehtiksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛsˈθɛtɪks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The study or philosophy of beauty.
An artist's principles, preferences, and/or his agenda
art
The branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste (emphasizing the evaluative criteria that are applied to art)
“Traditional aesthetics assumed the existence of universal and timeless criteria of artistic value.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The study or philosophy of beauty.
Used this way, aesthetics is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Slightly formal
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Beautiful or graceful
- Usage feel
- Reflective and slightly elevated
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Nearby words
- esthetics , used mainly in Regional English
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use aesthetics
- “Traditional aesthetics assumed the existence of universal and timeless criteria of artistic value.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Relating to or dealing with the subject of aesthetics.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: study or philosophy of beauty
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.