celestial
Meanings
- Of, relating to, or located in the sky or outer space, where the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars are visible.
- Of a nose: upturned, as if towards the sky.
- Of or relating to China; Chinese.
- Extremely beautiful, good, or pleasurable; divine, heavenly, wonderful.
- Of or relating to heaven as the place where deities (or the Christian God), spiritual beings, etc., exist; heavenly.
- Of or relating to one or more deities, or the Christian God; divine, heavenly.
- Of or relating to the celestial kingdom, the highest degree of glory.
- Synonym of celestially (“in a celestial manner (adjective senses)”).
- An inhabitant of heaven.
- A thing from heaven; also, a heavenly quality.
- A person who is extremely beautiful, of high status, or intelligent, etc.
- Sometimes in the form Celestial: a native of China; a Chinese person.
- a person from the Celestial Empire (usually associated with the period of the Qing Dynasty)
- Coming from or having to do with Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂i-lom Proto-Italic *kailom? Latin caelum Latin terrestris Latin -estris Latin caelestis Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Medieval Latin caelestiālislbor. Old French celestialbor. Middle English celestial English celestial The adjective is derived from Late Middle English celestial (“relating to the heavens or sky; (Christianity) relating to heaven, divine, heavenly”), borrowed from Old French celestial (modern French céleste), from Medieval Latin caelestiālis (“celestial”), or directly from its etymon Latin caelestis (“of or in the heavens, heavenly; (figurative) of the gods, divine; etc.”), from caelum (“heaven; sky”) (ultimate etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilom (“whole”)) + -estris (suffix meaning ‘dwelling or located in’ forming adjectives from nouns). The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective. Adjective sense 2.2 (“of or relating to China”) and noun sense 3 (“native of China”) refer to Celestial Empire (a calque of Mandarin 天朝 (Tiāncháo, “(literary) the Chinese Empire, China”), from 天 (tiān, “heaven; sky”) + 朝 (cháo, “dynasty; emperor’s reign; imperial court; etc.”)), a dated name for China when it was subject to imperial rule.