lovely

1 of 2

adjective

love·​ly ˈləv-lē How to pronounce lovely (audio)
lovelier; loveliest
1
: delightful for beauty, harmony, or grace : attractive
She looks lovely in that dress.
2
: grand, swell
what a lovely morning
3
: eliciting love by moral or ideal worth
A lovely woman who loves him for himself, not for his money.
4
obsolete : lovable
lovelily adverb
loveliness noun

lovely

2 of 2

noun

plural lovelies
1
: a beautiful woman
2
: a lovely object
Choose the Right Synonym for lovely

beautiful, lovely, handsome, pretty, comely, fair mean exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure.

beautiful applies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses.

beautiful mountain scenery

lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite.

a lovely melody

handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance.

a handsome Georgian mansion

pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness.

a painter of conventionally pretty scenes

comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to.

the comely grace of a dancer

fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness.

fair of face

Examples of lovely in a Sentence

Adjective She was wearing a lovely dress. a lovely bouquet of flowers The song has a lovely melody. The hotel has a lovely view. We enjoyed a lovely dinner. a singer with a lovely voice Their children have lovely manners. How lovely of you to come! It was lovely to have you here! Noun A chorus line of young lovelies danced on the stage.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Suitable from birth and up, this lovely little teether can only be hand-washed. Maya Polton, Parents, 8 Mar. 2024 The oak trees dot the lovely campus of Oakridge, lining meandering pathways that lead the boys to their classrooms. Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Mar. 2024 Well, The Tubes are still around — some 40 years after their commercial heyday — and performed their first show of 2024 before a capacity crowd on Thursday (March 7) at the lovely Guild Theatre in Menlo Park. Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2024 The leaves of young plants are tasty in stir fries and salads (outdoors educator Jason Wise offers many classes for foraging invasive weeds, complete with recipes), and the flowers can make a lovely fabric dye. Jeanette Marantos, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2024 The Slipper and the Rose (1976) And the shoe fits: Gemma Craven Bryan Forbes' The Slipper and the Rose, starring a lovely but mostly unremarkable Gemma Craven as the cinder-princess and a too-old Richard Chamberlain as her prince, makes a musical out of the beloved fairy tale. EW.com, 4 Mar. 2024 White Bean Stew With Garlic and Rosemary and Radicchio-Apple Salad White beans and garlic are a lovely pairing, as this healthy 30-minute meal proves. Becky Krystal, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2024 Perhaps that is one reason for his wines' aromatic concentration, complexity, and lovely, silky tannins. Per and Britt Karlsson, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024 Balanced, elegant, lovely mid palate with red fruit and browny flavors. Tom Mullen, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2024
Noun
But don’t despair, my scarred and scarring lovelies. Matt Thompson, Spin, 10 Sep. 2023 Serve these layered lovelies in old-fashioned glasses to make the treat extra special. Karla Walsh, Better Homes & Gardens, 6 July 2023 The first flowering of the reblooming variety of these perennial lovelies is in June. Erynn Hassinger, Country Living, 22 Apr. 2023 No, Colin Frissell hooking up with the three lovelies in Wisconsin. Kyle Smith, National Review, 10 Dec. 2019 The vegetables: Along with the summer lovelies mentioned above, some people get all crazy and put mushrooms in their ratatouille. James P. Dewan, chicagotribune.com, 13 Aug. 2019 Here are some of the lovelies that were arrested recently -- the Berkeley deal. Fox News, 29 Aug. 2018 Scott Rubin was asked to write jokes for National Lampoon’s Strip Poker, a witless pay-per-view series featuring Kaelin and a group of lovelies (including Olivia Munn, then known as Lisa) at the Hedonism II nudist resort in Jamaica. Benjamin Wallace, HWD, 1 May 2017 The Observer resolved then and there to award these two lovelies his first Mellow MoonPie award, for grit and glimmer in the face of death. The Masked Observer, AL.com, 31 Jan. 2018

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lovely.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of lovely was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near lovely

Cite this Entry

“Lovely.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lovely. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

lovely

adjective
love·​ly
ˈləv-lē
lovelier; loveliest
1
: gracefully or delicately attractive
a lovely dress
2
: beautiful in character
3
: highly pleasing : fine
a lovely view
loveliness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on lovely

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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