beatific

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 20, 2024 is:

beatific • \bee-uh-TIFF-ik\ • adjective

Beatific is a formal word that describes something or someone having a blissful appearance or showing complete happiness.

// As the pair danced, beatific smiles on their faces, the audience sat hushed and almost reverential.

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Examples:

“Most vividly, there was Tracy Chapman, back on the Grammys stage after years out of the spotlight to sing ‘Fast Car,’ her gentle yet resolute anthem of self-determination, alongside Luke Combs, the country star who had a huge hit last year with a cover of the decades-old song. As Chapman sang and played guitar, she looked satisfied, serene, almost beatific.” — Mikael Wood, The Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2024

Did you know?

When it comes to bliss-themed words, it’s hard to beat beatific. Since the 17th century, beatific has been all about that other b-word, first describing things that impart a feeling of complete and utter happiness, and later those beings with a blissful appearance. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Beatific comes from the Latin adjective beātificus, which means “making happy,” and can be traced further back to the verb beāre, meaning “to make happy.” Bliss, of course, is more like happiness cubed, so beatific tends to be used in formal speech and writing, and reserved for situations where happy itself doesn’t quite cut the mustard. A beatific smile, for example, is one that suggests its wearer is content on a deeper-than-ordinary level, while a beatific location—say, a tranquil tropical lagoon or a majestic mountain—is one that instills such pervasive joy in its beholder.