Meaning & use
otherworldly
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Strange and beautiful in a way that seems not to belong to the ordinary world.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a linking verb: an otherworldly glow; the music felt otherworldly.
Patterns
- an otherworldly quality
- seem otherworldly
The fog gave the lake an otherworldly stillness.
Her voice had an otherworldly purity that silenced the room.
Photos of the northern lights look almost otherworldly.
adjectivecomparable
Not interested in practical, everyday matters, and seeming absent-minded or spiritual.
Grammar: Describes a person or manner; can sound slightly critical.
Patterns
- an otherworldly person
The old professor was so otherworldly that he forgot his lunch daily.
He had an otherworldly calm that made practical talk seem rude.
Her otherworldly manner puzzled the busy managers.
Common combinations
- otherworldly beauty
- The cave had an otherworldly beauty that stunned the visitors.
- otherworldly glow
- A pale otherworldly glow filled the forest.
- otherworldly landscape
- The salt flats look like an otherworldly landscape.
- an otherworldly sound
- The choir produced an otherworldly sound in the stone chapel.
- strangely otherworldly
- The ruined city felt strangely otherworldly at dawn.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unearthly
- Unearthly can be frightening or eerie, while otherworldly is more often gentle or dreamlike.
- ethereal
- Ethereal stresses lightness and delicacy, so it fits something airy rather than strange.
- surreal
- Surreal suggests an experience that seems like a dream or is oddly illogical.
- eerie
- Eerie is unsettling and creepy, whereas otherworldly need not be scary.
Opposites
Word family
- other world noun
- a realm beyond ordinary life
- otherworldliness noun
- the quality of seeming strange or unearthly
- worldly adjective
- concerned with ordinary material life
- unworldly adjective
- innocent or not practical
Commonly confused: otherworldly or unworldly?
otherworldly vs unworldly
Unworldly means naive or spiritual and lacking life experience; otherworldly means as if from another world.
Practice
The mist rising from the volcanic pools gave the valley an ___ look.
Choose one answer.
Otherworldly describes a strange look that seems not of this world, which suits a misty volcanic valley. Ordinary is the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “otherworldly”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.