Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Full of love; loving.
- adj. Inspiring love or affection.
- adj. Having beauty that appeals to the emotions as well as to the eye. See Synonyms at beautiful.
- adj. Enjoyable; delightful.
- n. A beautiful person, especially a woman.
- n. A lovely object.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Fitted to excite love or emotion; possessing or characterized by engaging qualities; lovable; attractive; charming: as, a lovely woman; a lovely view; a lovely dress.
- Attractive to appetite or desire; enticing; inviting.
- Loving; tender.
- Synonyms Amiable, Lovely (see quotation from Archbishop Trench under amiable); Handsome, Pretty, etc. (see beautiful); pleasing, charming, fair.
- So as to induce or excite love; very beautifully or pleasantly.
- Lovingly; kindly.
- Worthy to be praised.
Wiktionary
- adj. Inspiring actual love
- adj. Evoking love-like, happy emotions by aesthetic or similar endearing qualities.
- adj. Very nice, wonderful in a general sense.
- adj. Loving, filled with love
- n. An attractive, lovely person, especially a (professional) beauty.
- n. A lovely object
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having such an appearance as excites, or is fitted to excite, love; beautiful; charming; very pleasing in form, looks, tone, or manner.
- adj. Lovable; amiable; having qualities of any kind which excite, or are fitted to excite, love or friendship.
- adj. Loving; tender.
- adj. Very pleasing; -- applied loosely to almost anything which is not grand or merely pretty
- adv. In a manner to please, or to excite love.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lovable especially in a childlike or naive way
- n. a very pretty girl who works as a photographer's model
- adj. appealing to the emotions as well as the eye
Examples
“To hear that lovely voice, for I do her justice, and there are lovely notes in her voice, _lovely_, to hear that voice shrieking and screaming away, in what she called the great scene, was simply pitiful.”
“How lovely -- how _lovely_ you are!" he exclaimed, almost under his breath.”
“Ah! mammy," she exclaimed more than once, "what a lovely, _lovely_ home! how happy we might be here!”
“Betty finally hit the jackpot with a lovely (or should I say $lovely$) man and she fucking blew it away!”
“Oh, what a lovely, _lovely_ house!" cried Sprite, "and what a dear place to live in.”
“And your mouth -- so sweet and sad -- but, what a lovely, _lovely_ smile! ”
“We're always tempted to use the phrase "lovely in lavender," and Mila Kunis might have been just that at Sunday night's Oscars.”
The Huffington Post: Mila Kunis At The 2011 Oscars: Hit Or Miss? (PHOTOS, POLL)
“They used the word lovely to describe everything from fried rice to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.”
“He said he was attending a football game between his university and Ohio University, and he mistakenly followed what he called a lovely group of women into an all-female dormitory.”
“That's what I call a lovely dessert, tailor made for Valentine day!”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lovely’.
-
Eesily missspellable words
absence, abundance, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate, accomplish, accordion, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, across and 420 more...
-
A Love List
lovely, loveable, lovemaking, love-suit, loveless, love-hate, lovey, lovelorn, lovesick, love-sickness, lovefest, lovebird and 91 more...
-
Describing the Taste of Foods
yummy, zesty, piquant, pungent, sharp, spicy, poignant, delicious, ambrosial, appetizing, delectable, heavenly and 194 more...
-
Fairylike
fairylike, enchanted, pixieish, pixyish, impish, mischievous, fluttery, magical, bewitching, enchanting, fey, otherworldly and 126 more...
-
Adjectives with 2 syllables that end in -y
angry, bossy, busy, chilly, cheesy, creepy, dirty, early, funny, hairy, happy, healthy and 126 more...
-
You are so GOOD LOOKING!
Words about looking good
a dish, dishy, snazzy, styling, looker, handsome, beautiful, delicious, dessert, yummy, tantalizing, hormone hunk and 51 more...
-
Words that look like adverbs but aren't
manly, womanly, ungainly, slovenly, homily, costly, dastardly, family, sparkly, wrinkly, oily, orderly and 69 more...
-
Sophaloaf's list
Favorites!
belle, starfish, photography, buddha, dinosaur, floccinaucinihili..., hypoallergenic, sailor, gorgeous, adhesive, imagination, artichokes and 55 more...
-
Her
beautiful, lovely, magnificent, exquisite, marvelous, charming, delicate, delightful, elegant, divine, resplendant, radiant and 6 more...
-
Hearticulating
All sorts of names or terms for romantic partners: vague, clinical, physical, sleazy, cheesy, co-dependent, demeaning, sarcastic, or the dutifully committed. This is to provide a wide-range of le...
couple, partner, lover, sweetheart, significant other, confidant, consort, mate, better half, paramour, accomplice, counterpart and 52 more...
-
My Favorite Words(:
These are all the words I LOVE! Some are real, some are made up, some are different languages. But I love em' all just the same!
sheath, spectacular, spectabulousarific, lovely, hola, silly, rice, nostalgia, lemons, jargon, strucken, perpendicular and 11 more...
-
lovely

Ed_Jogg Nailed it! frindley:) Feb 10, 2011
mayline974 i like it^^ Aug 6, 2009
frindley "Love-ly,
All I am is lovely.
Lovely is the one thing I can do.
Winsome,
What I am is winsome,
Radiant as in some
Dream come true.
Oh, isn't it a shame?
I can neither sew
Nor cook
Nor read or write my name.
But I'm happy
Merely being lovely,
For it's one thing I can give to you."
lyric from Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Apr 19, 2008