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Beautiful vs Precious - What's the difference?

beautiful | precious |

As adjectives the difference between beautiful and precious

is that beautiful is attractive and possessing charm while precious is of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.

As a noun precious is

someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.

As an adverb precious is

Used as an intensifier.

As a proper noun Precious is

{{surname|from=nicknames|lang=en}}, originating as a male or female nickname.

beautiful

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Attractive and possessing charm.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=5 citation , passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}
  • (of the weather) Pleasant; clear.
  • Well executed.
  • (as a pro-sentence ) How beautiful that is!
  • (referring to an athlete catching a ball)
  • (as a pro-sentence; ironic ) How unfortunate that is!
  • Usage notes

    The comparatives beautifuler' and '''beautifuller''', and the superlatives '''beautifulest''' and ' beautifullest have also occasionally been used, but are considered dated or obsolete.

    Synonyms

    * (possessing charm and attractive) beauteous, attractive, cute, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, sheen, handsome, hot (slang), lovely, nice-looking, pretty, shapely, fit (slang) * (of the weather) clear, fine, nice, pleasant, sunny * (well executed) excellent, exceptional, good, great, marvellous/marvelous, perfect, stylish, wonderful * great, marvellous/marvelous, nice, very nice, wonderful (any of these can be prefixed with an intensifier such as'' bloody, damned ''or just) * See also

    Antonyms

    * (possessing charm and attractive) grotesque, hideous, homely, plain, misshapen, repulsive, ugly; unbeautiful * (of the weather) bad, cloudy, dull, miserable, overcast, rainy, wet * (well executed) average, bad, mediocre, poor, shoddy, substandard, terrible, weak

    Derived terms

    * beautiful armadillo * beautiful game * beautiful people * beautifully * beautifulness

    precious

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pretious (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of high value or worth, or seemingly regarded as such.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author=(Polly Toynbee)
  • , volume=189, issue=10, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Britain's booming birthrate , passage=People are a good thing, the most precious resource in a rich economy, so the progressive-minded feel. Only misanthropists disagree or the dottier Malthusians who send green-ink tweets deploring any state assistance for child-rearing.}}
  • Regarded with love or tenderness.
  • (pejorative) Treated with too much reverence.
  • (pejorative) Contrived to be cute or charming.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 24, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club
  • , title= Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3 , passage=In the abstract, Stuhlbarg’s twinkly-eyed sidekick suggests Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 2 by way of late-period Robin Williams with an alien twist, but Stuhlbarg makes a character that easily could have come across as precious into a surprisingly palatable, even charming man.}}

    Synonyms

    * (of high value) dear, valuable * (contrived to charm) saccharine, syrupy, twee

    Noun

    (es)
  • Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
  • * J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
  • “It isn't fair, my precious , is it, to ask us what it's got in its nassty little pocketses?”
  • * 1909 , Mrs. Teignmouth Shore, The Pride of the Graftons (page 57)
  • She sat down with the dogs in her lap. "I won't neglect you for any one, will I, my preciouses ?"

    Adverb

    (-)
  • There is precious little we can do.