different between aerial vs rarefied

English

Alternative forms

• aërial (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin ?erius, from Ancient Greek ?????? (aérios), from ??? (a?r, “air”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /???.i.?l/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /???.??.?l/, /???.?i.?l/
  • (obsolete) IPA^(key): /e????.??.?l/, /e???.??.?l/
• Homophones: areal, Ariel
• Rhymes: -??ri?l

Adjective

aerial (comparative more aerial, superlative most aerial)

1. Living or taking place in the air. [from 16th c.]

2. (now literary or historical) Made up of air or gas; gaseous. [from 16th c.]
   • 1782, Joseph Priestley, Disquisitions relating to matter and spirit, I:

     A soul [...] was first conceived to be an aerial, or an igneous substance, which animates the body during life, and makes its escape at death [...].

3. Positioned high up; elevated. [from 16th c.]

4. Ethereal, insubstantial; imaginary. [from 16th c.]
5. Pertaining to the air or atmosphere; atmospheric. [from 17th c.]
6. (aviation) Pertaining to a vehicle which travels through the air; airborne; relating to or conducted by means of aircraft. [from 17th c.]
7. (botany) Above the ground

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

aerial (plural aerials)

1. (chiefly Britain, Australia) A rod, wire, or other structure for receiving or transmitting radio, television signals etc.
2. A move, as in dancing or skateboarding, involving one or both feet leaving the ground.
   • 2002, Joseph A. Kotarba, John M. Johnson, Postmodern Existential Sociology (page 78)

     In their dancing, clubbers were flamboyant. They experimented with new dance steps and improvisations, including risky maneuvers and aerials in which women were flipped into the air.

3. (photography) An aerial photograph.

Usage notes

Some make a distinction between an antenna and an aerial, with the former used to indicate a rigid structure, and the latter consisting of a wire strung in the air. For those who do not make a distinction, antenna is more commonly used in the United States and aerial is more commonly used in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Synonyms

• (device for receiving or transmitting): antenna
• (dance move involving one or both feet leaving the ground): air step, acrobatic

Translations

Derived terms

Anagrams

• realia

English

Alternative forms

• rarified

Adjective

rarefied (comparative more rarefied, superlative most rarefied)

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

   Philosophical debates can be quite rarefied.

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

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

Translations

Verb

rarefied

1. simple past tense and past participle of rarefy