variants:
or less commonly
rarified
Updated on: 11 Apr 2018
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Examples of rarefied in a Sentence
It's difficult to breathe in the rarefied air near the mountain's peak.
Recent Examples of rarefied from the Web
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Lacking any family heirs to his rarefied obsession, 78-year-old Zurisky has recently begun divesting his treasured pond-dwellers.
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That's a rarefied price-range in Sacramento real estate.
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And even if McLaren went on to have a dismal 2017, the documentary provides a vivid snapshot of this expensive and rarefied corner of the motorsports world.
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And no, that rarefied space is not the illustrious stratosphere of Hollywood celebrity.
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But many wealthy pet owners are willing to shill out for these rarefied services.
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The Takács operates at a high level, so the standard that one uses to gauge the quality of their playing is at the rarefied end of the spectrum.
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The assassination attempt has thrust the Novichok agents back into the spotlight, but few experts in the rarefied area of chemical weapons defense are willing—or able—to shed further light on them.
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The designer Franklin Salasky has spent most of the 40-plus years of his career creating elegant interiors for wealthy clients, in the rarefied precincts of Park Avenue, the Hamptons and New York’s tonier suburbs.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rarefied.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
Rarefied was formed from the verb rarefy, which derives from a combination of the Latin rarus ("thin" or "rare") with facere ("to make") and has meant "to make thin" since the 14th century. In its original uses back in the 1500s, the adjective rarefied was on the lean side too; it meant "made less dense" (as in "the fog lifted and we could breathe more easily in the rarefied air"). By the 17th century, rarefy had gained the sense "to refine or purify," and over time rarefied followed suit.
First Known Use of rarefied
14th century
RAREFIED Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of rarefied for English Language Learners
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: understood by only a small group of people : only for people who know about a particular thing
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of air : not having much oxygen because of being high up in the atmosphere
Learn More about rarefied
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See words that rhyme with rarefied Nglish: Translation of rarefied for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of rarefied for Arabic speakers
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