Poetry Society Votes on Top 10 Most Beautiful Words in The English Language
The results of a survey amongst the 1,500 members of the Poetry Society of America has been revealed.
Babbel, the language-learning app, surveyed members of the society this year using a list of words from Dr Robert Beard’s 100 Most Beautiful Words in English, published in 2009. Diaphanous - meaning something that is light, delicate and translucent, and often used to describe fabrics and materials - tops the list. Ethereal, used to describe something airy and out of this world, came second, while mellifluous, meaning sweetly flowing or melodic - often used to describe a smooth and pleasant sound or voice - came third.
The top 10 also included epiphany, denoting a sudden moment of revelation; susurrous, used to describe a soft, whispering or mumbling sound; and lithe, meaning something delicately flexible and agile.
Asked to reveal favourite words of their own, popular words were luminous, moonshine, melody, sensuous, serendipitous and elysian, used to describe something blissful.
European romantic terms also appeared in the survey results. French was popular with amour; as was corazón, the Spanish term for heart; and saudade, a Portuguese word used to describe a sense of nostalgic melancholy. One person chose wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection.
