aesthetic

comparative more aesthetic · superlative most aesthetic · alternative dated æsthetic · alternative US esthetic

1. Concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance.

   It works well enough, but the shabby exterior offends his aesthetic sensibilities.

   3 more examples

   If you're anxious for to shine in the high aesthetic line as a man of culture rare, You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant them everywhere.

   1881, W. S. Gilbert, Patience, act I

   If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.

   1941 August, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 358

   But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.

   2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 268

2. proscribedrareBeautiful or appealing to one's sense of beauty or art.

   The design of the lobby cannot be considered particularly aesthetic.

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   The station was rebuilt yet again by British Rail in 1967, when large chunks of the 19th century station were demolished and replaced with 'modern' buildings that were less than aesthetic.

   2022 January 12, Paul Bigland, “Fab Four: the nation's finest stations: Wakefield Kirkgate”, in RAIL, number 948, page 28

   Synonyms: aesthetical, tasteful · Antonyms: inaesthetic, unaesthetic

plural aesthetics · alternative dated æsthetic · alternative US esthetic

1. plural normallyThe study of art or beauty.
2. in pluraloftenThat which appeals to the senses.
3. The set of artistic motifs defining a collection of things, especially works of art; more broadly, their aura or “vibe”.

   I really like the goth aesthetic you've got going there.

   2 more examples

   Her most recent works have this quirky, nonchalant aesthetic inspired by ’90s teen culture.

   A thin, crunchy lemon and thyme rosti was essentially the pimped-up aesthetic of the Kettle chip. That's OK. I like Kettle chips.

   2011 December 18, Jay Rayner, “Restaurant review: Aurelia”, in The Observer, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2022