Meaning & use
haunting beauty
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Meaning
phraseuncountable
A kind of beauty that is both attractive and slightly sad or eerie, and stays in your mind.
Grammar: Used as a noun phrase; often with 'a' when countable: 'a haunting beauty'.
Patterns
- a haunting beauty
- the haunting beauty of something
The abandoned church had a haunting beauty that moved everyone.
She sang with a haunting beauty that silenced the room.
The film captures the haunting beauty of the empty moors.
Common combinations
- haunting beauty of
- The haunting beauty of the landscape inspired his painting.
- a haunting beauty
- There was a haunting beauty in her eyes.
- melancholy beauty
- The poem describes a melancholy beauty of autumn.
Synonyms and how they differ
- eerie beauty
- Focuses more on strangeness and fear; 'haunting beauty' suggests sadness and lasting memory.
- melancholy beauty
- Emphasizes sadness rather than the mysterious, lingering quality.
Opposites
Commonly confused: haunting beauty or hunting beauty?
haunting beauty vs hunting beauty
'Hunting' relates to chasing animals; 'haunting' means mysteriously memorable.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'haunting beauty' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Haunting beauty' describes a quality of something beautiful and sad; the other options misuse it as an adjective or verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “haunting beauty”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.