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In the upper reaches of Chomolungma, known more familiarly as Mount Everest, the air is so rarefied—so much less dense than at lower elevations—that most climbers use supplemental oxygen in order to successfully complete their climb. This sense of rarefied, a word that comes from a combination of the Latin words rarus (“thin” or “rare”) and facere (“to make”), has been in use since the 1500s. A second, figurative sense of rarefied developed in the following century to describe things that can only be understood by a small or select group, i.e. one “thinned” from the majority of people by dint of their unique experience, expertise, or status. It’s this sense that we use when we say that to successfully summit Chomolungma puts one in rarefied company—just over 6,000 people have made it to the top at the time of this writing.
Examples of rarefied in a Sentence
Rick Pearson, Chicago Tribune, 26 June 2025
The film is a rarefied exaltation of bullfighting as an inherently but latently cinematic domain that’s been waiting for its closeup—and which reveals its essence only by way of the special powers of the cinema.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 24 June 2025
This notable retention rate undoubtedly owes in part to Four Seasons’ rarefied in-flight experience, which Fortune got a glimpse of during a whirlwind media journey last March.
—Alexandra Kirkman, Fortune, 18 June 2025
The result is a serene space that exemplifies a rarefied lifestyle, somewhere between the Tate Modern and mid-century Milan.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 12 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for rarefied
Cite this Entry
“Rarefied.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rarefied. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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