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Can beautiful be used to describe a man?
Our evidence shows that when beautiful is used to describe physical beauty, it is overwhelming used of women or a physical aspect of a woman (such as her hair or skin). This hasn't always been the case: when beautiful first came into English it was used as easily of men as it was of women. Nowadays, handsome is the adjective of appreciation most commonly used of men.
The plural noun phrase beautiful people doesn't refer to the overall looks of the people mentioned, but rather the elegance and sumptuousness of their lives.
Synonyms
Examples of beautiful in a Sentence
Tim Fish, Wine Spectator, 15 Nov. 2008
In her biography of Monroe, Churchwell takes to task the relentless mythomania of her admirers and critics, who are equally invested in nurturing the legend of a hapless beautiful woman consumed by her desire for celebrity and love.
—Lakshmi Chaudhry, Nation, 27 Aug.-3 Sept. 2007
In the hothouse of today's celebrity monoculture, the result has been the perfection of the kind of profile in which athletes and actors struggle to overcome … absence or presence in their lives of money, fame, sex and drugs. Especially so in the upscale slicks, where these stories of the rich and beautiful emerge so flat and lifeless that no one in them casts a shadow.
—Jeff MacGregor, New York Times Book Review, 21 Aug. 2005
You have the most beautiful smile.
The film tells a beautiful story about two young lovers.
Our hotel room had a beautiful view of the ocean.
The sunsets here are absolutely beautiful.
What a beautiful day for a picnic!
This is a beautiful example of early American poetry.
Tribune Content Agency, The Mercury News, 14 Nov. 2024
Replacing a drab sky with a beautiful one used to be a many-step process involving manual masking and layers.
—PCMAG, 12 Nov. 2024
One of architect Émilie Magdelaine’s latest projects is located in a beautiful four-story 1850 building on rue Bergère, in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.
—Nicolas Milon, Architectural Digest, 5 Nov. 2024
Even still, the property, which is arguably best known its award-winning Highland Golf Course, was too beautiful to resist.
—Brienne Walsh, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for beautiful 
Dictionary Entries Near beautiful
Cite this Entry
“Beautiful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/beautiful. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
beautiful
adjective
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