rarefied

adjective

rar·​e·​fied ˈrer-ə-ˌfīd 

variants or less commonly rarified

1

: being less dense

2

: of, relating to, or interesting to a select group : esoteric

3

: very high

Did you know?

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

It's difficult to breathe in the rarefied air near the mountain's peak.

Recent Examples on the Web

The ability to find super specific items with ease on eBay has always been somewhat of a rarefied skill. —Clare Duffy, CNN Money, 14 Nov. 2025

Harris, a very, very rich man himself, and his group are already well-connected in that most rarefied of financial air. —David Aldridge, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2025

Kokuho, which takes its title and its novelistic sweep from a recent work of fiction about the rarefied world of kabuki, begins in the mid-1960s and ends 50 years later. —Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 29 Oct. 2025

With a third nomination for the same director, Stone and Lanthimos will join a rarefied tier of Oscar history. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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