ethereal

ethereal
    adj 1: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as
           impalpable or intangible as air; "figures light and
           aeriform come unlooked for and melt away"- Thomas
           Carlyle; "aerial fancies"; "an airy apparition";
           "physical rather than ethereal forms" [syn: {aeriform},
           {aerial}, {airy}, {aery}, {ethereal}]
    2: of or containing or dissolved in ether; "ethereal solution"
    3: of heaven or the spirit; "celestial peace"; "ethereal
       melodies"; "the supernal happiness of a quiet death" [syn:
       {celestial}, {ethereal}, {supernal}]
    4: characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy; "this
       smallest and most ethereal of birds"; "gossamer shading
       through his playing" [syn: {ethereal}, {gossamer}]
    

Ethereal \E*the"re*al\, a.
   1. Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the
      higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere;
      celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
      [1913 Webster]

            Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger. --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy;
      tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as
      form, manner, thought, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

            Vast chain of being, which from God began,
            Natures ethereal, human, angel, man.  --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether;
      as, ethereal salts.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Ethereal oil}. (Chem.) See {Essential oil}, under
      {Essential}.

   {Ethereal oil of wine} (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid
      consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl
      sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after
      etherification. Called also {heavy oil of wine}
      (distinguished from oil of wine, or [oe]nanthic ether).

   {Ethereal salt} (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a
      base; an ester.
      [1913 Webster]
    

229 Moby Thesaurus words for "ethereal":
      Elysian, Olympian, adulterated, aerial, aeriform, aerodynamic,
      aerostatic, aery, air-built, airish, airlike, airy, alfresco,
      altitudinous, ascending, asomatous, aspiring, astral, atmospheric,
      attenuate, attenuated, beatific, beatified, blessed, bodiless,
      boyish, breezy, bubbly, celestial, chimeric, chimerical,
      cloud-born, cloud-built, cloud-woven, colossal, cut, decarnate,
      decarnated, delicate, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate,
      disembodied, dominating, downy, dreamlike, ectoplasmic, elevated,
      eminent, empyreal, empyrean, etheric, exalted, exposed,
      extramundane, extraterrestrial, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous,
      feathery, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fluffy, foamy,
      fragile, frail, from on high, frothy, fuming, fumy, gaseous,
      gasified, gasiform, gaslike, gassy, gauzy, ghostish, ghostlike,
      ghostly, ghosty, girlish, glorified, gossamer, gossamery, gracile,
      haughty, heavenly, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set,
      high-up, illusory, imaginary, immaterial, impalpable, imponderable,
      imponderous, in glory, incorporate, incorporeal, insubstantial,
      intangible, lacy, leger, light, light as air, lighter than vanity,
      lofty, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, misty, monumental,
      mounting, mousse, nonmaterial, nonphysical, occult, open-air,
      otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, oxyacetylene,
      oxygenous, ozonic, papery, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac,
      paradisic, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantom, phantomic, phantomlike,
      pneumatic, prominent, psychic, rare, rarefied, reeking, reeky,
      roomy, shadowy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim,
      slimmish, slinky, small, smoking, smoky, soaring, souffle,
      specterlike, spectral, spiring, spiritual, spirituous, steaming,
      steamy, steep, sublime, subtile, subtle, superlative, supernal,
      supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied,
      thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike,
      topless, toplofty, topping, towering, towery, transcendental,
      transmundane, tropospheric, uncompact, uncompressed, unearthly,
      unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unheavy, unphysical, unreal,
      unsubstantial, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, vague, vaporing,
      vaporish, vaporlike, vaporous, vapory, volatile, wasp-waisted,
      watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy,
      wiredrawn, wispy, wraithlike, wraithy, yeasty