English Dictionary

HEAVENLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does heavenly mean? 

HEAVENLY (adjective)
  The adjective HEAVENLY has 3 senses:

1. relating to or inhabiting a divine heavenplay

2. of or relating to the skyplay

3. of or belonging to heaven or godplay

  Familiarity information: HEAVENLY used as an adjective is uncommon.


 Dictionary entry details 


HEAVENLY (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or inhabiting a divine heaven

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

celestial; heavenly

Context example:

heavenly hosts

Pertainym:

Heaven (the abode of God and the angels)

Derivation:

Heaven (the abode of God and the angels)


Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to the sky

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

celestial; heavenly

Context example:

a heavenly body

Pertainym:

sky (the atmosphere and outer space as viewed from the earth)


Sense 3

Meaning:

Of or belonging to heaven or god

Similar:

ambrosial; ambrosian (worthy of the gods)

celestial; ethereal; supernal (of heaven or the spirit)

divine; godly (emanating from God)

divine; godlike (being or having the nature of a god)

paradisaic; paradisaical; paradisal; paradisiac; paradisiacal (relating to or befitting Paradise)

divine; providential (resulting from divine providence)

superlunar; superlunary; translunar; translunary (unworldly or ethereal)

Also:

supernal (being or coming from on high)

immortal (not subject to death)

sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)

Antonym:

earthly (of or belonging to or characteristic of this earth as distinguished from heaven)


 Context examples 


The moon will be in Pisces, conjunct Neptune, so if you do go to a restaurant or attend a party, it will have a heavenly, other-worldly setting, quite beautiful and romantic.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

But astronomers have often associated the movement of heavenly bodies with music.

(Does Our Galaxy Sound Like Funky Blues Music?, George Putic/VOA)

Its productions and features may be without example, as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Oh! my experience has been heavenly, if you only knew it!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had no courage to think that at first, heavenly kind as was your welcome to me.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We shall have a most heavenly drive.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

An imaginary great circle on the surface of a heavenly body passing through the poles at right angles to the equator.

(Longitude, NCI Thesaurus)

The angular distance north or south between an imaginary line around a heavenly body parallel to its equator and the equator itself.

(Latitude, NCI Thesaurus)

Upon such expressions of affection Fanny could have lived an hour without saying another word; but Edmund, after waiting a moment, obliged her to bring down her mind from its heavenly flight by saying, But what is it that you want to consult me about?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars; whereof the innermost is distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his diameters, and the outermost, five; the former revolves in the space of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half; so that the squares of their periodical times are very near in the same proportion with the cubes of their distance from the centre of Mars; which evidently shows them to be governed by the same law of gravitation that influences the other heavenly bodies.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Life begins at forty." (English proverb)

"Words coming from far away are always half true, half false." (Bhutanese proverb)

"Complaining to someone other than God is disgraceful." (Arabic proverb)

"If someone isn't handsome by nature, it's useless for them to wash over and over again." (Corsican proverb)



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