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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
Shirley Halperin, Rolling Stone, 16 May 2026
Like the Kings and Blackhawks and Penguins and Lightning of yesteryear, the Avs have reached a different level, in rarefied air currently occupied by only Florida and Edmonton.
—Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 14 May 2026
The tests involved the new, larger rotor blades that will convey the next-gen helicopters through the rarefied Martian atmosphere, just 1 percent the density of air at sea level on Earth.
—ArsTechnica, 8 May 2026
However, overseeing the entire program puts Gamble in rarefied air.
—Steve Galluzzo, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Rarefied.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rarefied. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
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