Exceptionally pleasing or wonderful, or understood as belonging to a deity or the sacred.
Reach for it when expressing delighted admiration or referring respectfully to sacred origin
The bakery released a divine scent of orange, butter, and warm cardamom.
| playful | |
|---|---|
| everyday | |
| warm |
|
| formal | |
| literary |
playful
Fits when taste is the only source of pleasure
Careful Delicious cannot praise music, weather, or sacred power.
everyday
Fits when broad enthusiastic approval is enough
Careful Wonderful loses divine's intensity and sacred resonance.
warm
Fits when sensory pleasure invites a light sacred metaphor
Careful Heavenly sounds playful and may be unsuitable for a literal religious claim.
formal
Fits when religious reverence is literally intended
Careful Sacred means set apart or holy, not simply connected with a deity.
formal
Fits when beauty or excellence inspires awe
Careful Sublime is cooler and more philosophical than delighted divine.
literary
Fits when refined beauty or flavor deserves precise praise
Careful Exquisite emphasizes delicacy, not spiritual significance.
literary
Fits when conduct resembling divine goodness is meant
Careful Godly usually describes piety or moral character, not origin.
divine inspiration
The poet described the sudden melody as divine inspiration.
simply divine
The poached apricots were simply divine with cold cream.
divine presence
Worshippers understood the stillness as a divine presence.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Dvortygirl, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 Updated
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