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 trouble is that he’s created his own rarefied discomfort zone of self-indulgence posing as importance. —Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 2 May 2025

Coogler is now thirty-eight and occupies a rarefied niche among contemporary filmmakers. —Jelani Cobb, New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2025

All those marks placed him in rarefied air at the position. —Oliver Thomas, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025

Related Articles Even brands with larger venues worked to create a rarefied ambiance, like Dior with its performance in five acts conceived by famed U.S. theater director and playwright Robert Wilson. —Joelle Diderich, WWD, 19 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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