Pulchritude

//pʌlkrə.t(j)uːd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Physical beauty. uncountable, usually

    "1978, Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA Special Publication 4204, 1978, ch. 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20061020074600/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ch4-8.html One participant recalls arriving at his Cocoa Beach motel on a Saturday evening with the Miss Universe contest on TV. To his wife's amazement, his interest in feminine pulchritude gave way to fatigue, and he was asleep before the final selection."

  2. 2
    physical beauty (especially of a woman) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
attractivenessbeautifulnessbeautybloomcharmcomeliness

Example

More examples

"Justin Timberlake is the sexiest male musician on earth. This judgement comes courtesy of lingerie purveyor Victoria's Secret, which just issued its annual assessment of celebrity pulchritude."

Etymology

From Middle English pulcritude, from Latin pulchritūdō, from pulcher (“beautiful”).

More for "pulchritude"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.