Rarefied

Quick meaning: Rarefied is an adjective meaning Distant from the lives and everyday concerns of ordinary people; esoteric, exclusive, select.

Meaning

Distant from the lives and everyday concerns of ordinary people; esoteric, exclusive, select.

More Meanings

1. Elevated in style or nature, sublime; of high intellectual or moral value.
2. (of a gas etc.) Less dense than usual; thin.
3. simple past and past participle of rarefy

Example Sentences

Philosophical debates can be quite rarefied.

The air at high altitudes at the top of mountains is rarefied.

The country gentry of old time lived in a rarefied social air: dotted apart on their stations up the mountain they looked down with imperfect discrimination on the belts of thicker life below.

Of course, Beaumont was the real boss; but he lived in the rarefied atmosphere of some Olympian height from which he could distinguish nothing smaller than an international crisis or a split in the Cabinet.

Word Forms

• rarified

Synonyms for rarefied

Depending on context, synonyms include reserved, noble, lofty, exalted, thin, rare.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include idealistic, high-minded, exalted, rare, high-flown, noble.

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