Poetry Society of America chooses most beautiful word in English language

More than 1,000 Scholars and scribes from the Poetry Society of America have chosen the most beautiful word in the English language: diaphanous. Merriam-Webster defines diaphanous as something “characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through,” as in translucent, or constituted of “extreme delicacy of form.” To create a consensus, Poetry Society of America put multiple words up for vote and diaphanous came in first with 17%.
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More than 1,000 Scholars and scribes from the Poetry Society of America have chosen the most beautiful word in the English language: diaphanous. Merriam-Webster defines diaphanous as something “characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through,” as in translucent, or constituted of “extreme delicacy of form.” To create a consensus, Poetry Society of America put multiple words up for vote and diaphanous came in first with 17%. Ethereal, meaning otherworldy, took home second with 12% and mellifluous — something sweet, smooth or pleasant — was the third top word with 10%. Poets choose beautiful words through “phonaesthetics,” the branch of linguistics and psychology that studies the subjective pleasantness or unpleasantness of a word.
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- More than 1,000 Scholars and scribes from the Poetry Society of America have chosen the most beautiful word in the English language: diaphanous. Merriam-Webster defines diaphanous as something “characterized by such fineness of texture as to permit seeing through,” as in translucent, or constituted of “extreme delicacy of form.” To create a consensus, Poetry Society of America put multiple words up for vote and diaphanous came in first with 17%.
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Poetry Society of America chooses most beautiful word in English language
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