Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to the sky or the heavens: Planets are celestial bodies.
- adj. Of or relating to heaven; divine: celestial beings.
- adj. Supremely good; sublime: celestial happiness.
- adj. Of or relating to the Chinese people or to the former Chinese Empire.
- n. A heavenly being; a god or angel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to the sky or visible heaven: as, the celestial globe; “the twelve celestial signs,”
- Heavenly; belonging or relating to, or characteristic of, heaven; dwelling in heaven; hence, of superior excellence, delight, purity, etc.: as, a celestial being; celestial felicity.
- n. An inhabitant of heaven.
- n. [capitalized] A popular name for a native of China, the “Celestial Empire.”
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete (sometimes capitalized) A native of China.
- n. obsolete, slang by extension, an East Asian person.
- adj. Relating to heaven in a religious sense.
- adj. Relating to the sky or space.
- adj. Mormonism Of or pertaining to the highest degree of glory.
- n. An inhabitant of heaven.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens.
- adj. Of or pertaining to the spiritual heaven; heavenly; divine.
- adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of, the Chinese, or Celestial, Empire, of the Chinese people.
- n. An inhabitant of heaven.
- n. colloq. A native of China; a Chinaman; a Chinese.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. relating to or inhabiting a divine heaven
- adj. of heaven or the spirit
- adj. of or relating to the sky
Etymologies
- From Celestial Empire, a formerly used name for China. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin celestiālis, from Latin caelestis, from caelum, sky. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This is only the latest twist in the government's attempts to convict Mr. Jeffs on charges related to his leadership of a several-thousand member sect in which he arranges plural marriages and joins young girls and much-older men in what he calls "celestial marriages.”
The Wall Street Journal: Polygamist Leader Fires Lawyers, Takes on Own Case
“Optatianus Porphyrius mentions more than once the monogram of Christ, which he calls the celestial sign, in the panegyric of Constantine which he wrote in Latin verse, but not”
“That is what we call the celestial nose, because it is always pointing skyward and serves as a perpetual interrogation point.”
How to Become Rich A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony
“It is not a question of the heavens which are separated by heaven "coming" to Earth, but what they described as celestial Earth being transposed into the crossbars. many heavens - the chiliocosm.”
“On the macroscopic scale, for most problems in celestial mechanics, Newtons theory of gravity, supplemented by treating relativistic effects as a small (very small) perturbation and irregularities in the mass distribution of gravitating bodies as multipole effects works extremely well.”
Matthew Yglesias » Cato’s David Boaz Joins George Will in Peddling Bogus “Global Cooling” Stories
“As far as I know, there is no mathematical solution for the classic n-body problem in celestial mechanics.”
Matthew Yglesias » Cato’s David Boaz Joins George Will in Peddling Bogus “Global Cooling” Stories
“Would that be Santa in celestial .... not so good, right?”
“The waterproof unit takes three AA batteries and has built-in celestial tables.”
Radio Reviews: Field & Stream Tests Four Handheld Radios from Garmin, Midland, Motorola and Cobra
“You know, up there soaking in celestial joy while Elvis rocks Cloud 9.”
“Iridium, since it is more prevalent in celestial bodies and spread out through the K-T boundary throughout the world – it was a leading clue in the hypothesis that dinosaurs were wiped out by a big asteriod.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘celestial’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Things you might hear on a Mormon Sunday
Come on brothers and sisters!
in my heart of he..., every fiber of my..., i'd like to bear ..., brothers and sisters, sweet spirit, edify, please bless, jesus wants me fo..., visiting teacher, relief society, elders quorum, quorum of the 12 and 39 more...
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September Words-10031
During the month of September, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has...
pseudonym, Cacophony, Cannabis, Bogus, Soulless, via, celestial, Liquor, dwarf, Wretched, Gemini, quartz and 53 more...
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Relating To: The Sky
Words of, about, or relating to the heavens.
firmament, horizon, celestial, pleiades, supernal, welkin, cerulean, hypaethral, abatjour, upaithric, canopus, cerulific and 40 more...
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Poetry
lucid, silhouette, ethereal, illumination, serenity, requiem, adieu, celestial, esoteric, myriad, ebony, kaleidoscope and 16 more...
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Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
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the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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NTB
chaos, Sagittarius, aether, magic, jester, fool, random, delirium, fire, life, cosmic, riddle and 120 more...
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cosmis conundrum
Eonian, Aeon, Aphelion, heliocentrism, periastron, occultation, geosynchronous, lunisolar, celestial, supernal, syzygy, extrasolar
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for celestial.
bilby Arrgghaballahhufflepox!
I even saw TISM live. Once. But it were grand :-) Feb 26, 2009
qroqqa Do I have to spell out the TISM reference then? (* esprit de l'escalier: This Is Serious Marsupial would have worked better *) Feb 26, 2009
bilby Field Marshall Q, your good self and the rolig do serious better than anyone else on this battered conveyance, so have with it. Avanti! Feb 26, 2009
qroqqa This Is Serious, Bilby Feb 26, 2009
bilby Mistah quokka he must be do put money sweah jah, yessah. Feb 26, 2009
qroqqa Celestialling the word,
her colour a deference still,
her voice adored and implored : 'Lord, what choice ?'
—Charles Williams, 'The Ascent of the Spear', in Taliessin Through Logres
Mistah Williams he wanker. Feb 26, 2009
brtom ..." and while
Celestial blushes check thy conscious smile ..."
Sheridan, School for Scandal Jan 2, 2008
slumry As a noun, celestial refers to a heavenly being, a god or angel. Aug 7, 2007