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Ethereal vs Eerie - What's the difference?

ethereal | eerie |

As adjectives the difference between ethereal and eerie

is that ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions while eerie is strange, weird, fear-inspiring.

ethereal

English

Alternative forms

* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
  • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
  • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
  • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.
  • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    eerie

    English

    Alternative forms

    * eery

    Adjective

    (er)
  • strange, weird, fear-inspiring.
  • The eerie sounds seemed to come from the graveyard after midnight.
  • (Scotland) fearful, timid.
  • * 1883 , George MacDonald, Donal Grant
  • She began to feel eerie .

    Synonyms

    * See also * creepy, spooky

    Derived terms

    * eerily (adverb) * eeriness (noun) * eerisome