as in celestial
of, relating to, or suggesting heaven
movie scenes set in heaven often suggest that harps are the favored instruments for empyrean music
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in sky
a dwelling place of perfect happiness for the soul after death
ascended into the empyrean after a life filled with good deeds
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in utopia
an often imaginary place or state of utter perfection and happiness
most ticket buyers have no trouble envisioning the empyrean that winning the lottery would inevitably bring about
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Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of empyrean
Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2025
Larraín’s third subject, Maria Callas, despite being born to an ignoble family and having to face wartime poverty during the 1940s, was no stranger to the trappings of an empyrean existence, but in constantly having to live up to it, like Diana, her life met an untimely end.
—Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 15 Dec. 2024
The event, held high up in skyscraping event venue Glasshouse Chelsea, offered sweeping vista views of the Manhattan and New Jersey skylines meant to evoke the game’s new empyrean setting.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 26 Apr. 2023
At their best, Harjo’s poems inform each other, linking her different modes, facilitating her tendency to zoom from a personal experience to a more empyrean one.
—Maya Phillips, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2019
Louis leaves Prior, drawing the first line in a pattern of abandonment that informs the entire play, and finally stretches all the way into the empyrean kingdom of an absent God.
—Ben Brantley, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2018
Our badges looked different, we were afforded fewer privileges, and we were certainly kept in the dark about The Algorithm (pause for heavenly-choir noise effect) and other such empyrean secrets.
—Lucas Peterson, GQ, 22 May 2017
Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2022
They are concealed in the empyrean.
—Frank Wilczek, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021
Betts is part of the Sox Sensation club with Fred Lynn and Nomar Garciaparra, all wildly popular and productive players who turned out to be supernovas streaking across the Boston baseball empyrean instead of franchise polestars.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 18 July 2022
O’Keeffe places the viewer aloft, level with the bone, high up in the empyrean.
—Roxana Robinson, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2021
Unfortunately, for those who see Mr. Donnelly’s empyrean status less as the result of an Immaculate Kawnception and more as another harbinger of Artistic Kawpocalypse, the show will do little to change previous conceptions about him or his art.
—Brian P. Kelly, WSJ, 6 Mar. 2021
That could quickly propel a few black schools into the athletic empyrean, and change the place of HBCUs in American culture.
—Jemele Hill, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2019
Grahm reaches for the empyrean, and Locke brings him back to earth, a table full of wine bottles between them.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
Grahm reaches for the empyrean, and Locke brings him back to earth, a table full of wine bottles between them.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
Adjective
In October, with three more of her novels now available in English and at least 20 other languages, the Swedish Academy awarded Han the Nobel Prize, elevating her to the empyrean realm reserved for writers of what is sometimes called world literature.
—Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2025
Larraín’s third subject, Maria Callas, despite being born to an ignoble family and having to face wartime poverty during the 1940s, was no stranger to the trappings of an empyrean existence, but in constantly having to live up to it, like Diana, her life met an untimely end.
—Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 15 Dec. 2024
The event, held high up in skyscraping event venue Glasshouse Chelsea, offered sweeping vista views of the Manhattan and New Jersey skylines meant to evoke the game’s new empyrean setting.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 26 Apr. 2023
At their best, Harjo’s poems inform each other, linking her different modes, facilitating her tendency to zoom from a personal experience to a more empyrean one.
—Maya Phillips, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2019
Louis leaves Prior, drawing the first line in a pattern of abandonment that informs the entire play, and finally stretches all the way into the empyrean kingdom of an absent God.
—Ben Brantley, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2018
Our badges looked different, we were afforded fewer privileges, and we were certainly kept in the dark about The Algorithm (pause for heavenly-choir noise effect) and other such empyrean secrets.
—Lucas Peterson, GQ, 22 May 2017
Noun
Magical empyrean is mundane Earth.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2022
They are concealed in the empyrean.
—Frank Wilczek, WSJ, 14 Oct. 2021
Betts is part of the Sox Sensation club with Fred Lynn and Nomar Garciaparra, all wildly popular and productive players who turned out to be supernovas streaking across the Boston baseball empyrean instead of franchise polestars.
—Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 18 July 2022
O’Keeffe places the viewer aloft, level with the bone, high up in the empyrean.
—Roxana Robinson, The New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2021
Unfortunately, for those who see Mr. Donnelly’s empyrean status less as the result of an Immaculate Kawnception and more as another harbinger of Artistic Kawpocalypse, the show will do little to change previous conceptions about him or his art.
—Brian P. Kelly, WSJ, 6 Mar. 2021
That could quickly propel a few black schools into the athletic empyrean, and change the place of HBCUs in American culture.
—Jemele Hill, The Atlantic, 5 Sep. 2019
Grahm reaches for the empyrean, and Locke brings him back to earth, a table full of wine bottles between them.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
Grahm reaches for the empyrean, and Locke brings him back to earth, a table full of wine bottles between them.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for empyrean
Adjective
-
Yet these same conditions—distance from anthropogenic light sources, a mountainous altitude above the cloud line, a crisp desert atmosphere—provide the baselines for Rubin to access the faintest of faint celestial objects.—
Michael Jones McKean,
The Atlantic,
23 June 2025
-
Related article Largest celestial object of its kind detected in the distant universe The new images represent just over 10 hours of test observations, offering a brief preview of the observatory’s decade-long mission to explore the mysteries of the universe like never before.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
23 June 2025
Noun
-
Fireworks light up the sky over Bristol Harbor on the evening of July 3 and set the stage for July 4, with the Military, Civic and Firemen’s Parade.—
Michele Herrmann,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2025
-
If the sky turns ominous and thunder can be heard, find a secure place for shelter.—
NC Weather Bot,
Charlotte Observer,
30 June 2025
Noun
-
Musk, Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg are all fans of Iain Banks’s Culture series, which imagines a post-scarcity socialist utopia where all of our measly 21st-century problems have been solved by technological advancement.—
Robert Rubsam,
The Atlantic,
21 June 2025
-
But as three generations of the beautiful, distinguished Sinclair family converge on their private summer utopia, no one is talking – not even The Liars, Cadence's childhood best friends.—
Billie Melissa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 June 2025
Adjective
-
In the elders’ telling, a single ray of heavenly light shone down while the villagers cried with joy.—
Pete McKenzie,
Harpers Magazine,
18 June 2025
-
Basically a man who had built a solid reputation as a career university president naively entered the Church of Florida Autocracy, donned sackcloth and ashes and prostrated himself … ultimately for no heavenly reward whatsoever.—
Ron Cunningham,
The Orlando Sentinel,
8 June 2025
Noun
-
Cheryl Des Vignes and Jerrold Smith II Longtime lovebirds Cheryl Des Vignes and Jerrold Smith II are living in newlywed bliss after getting married in Los Angeles in May.—
Taylor Ardrey,
USA Today,
14 June 2025
-
With the Oilers coming off a Game 1 overtime win and the fans still feeling bliss, Friday’s game got off to a blistering start.—
Jacob Lev,
CNN Money,
7 June 2025
Noun
-
Expensive tickets, of course, and a scalper’s paradise.—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
20 June 2025
-
There are deep shipwrecks, big waves, and surf culture on the Atlantic side, and sugar-white sand and eco paradises filled with mangroves and wildlife on the west side.—
Carrie Honaker,
Travel + Leisure,
17 June 2025
Noun
-
As a dissident, Limonov didn’t find New York to be some immigrant heaven, but rather a cutthroat town where the Upper West Side socialites were as disaffected and atrophied as Politburo members.—
Ed Simon
June 23,
Literary Hub,
23 June 2025
-
While there will be emphasis on families and domestic lives, the dazzling configurations taking place in the heavens above could even mark a period where past-life connections return to bring potential radiance and good news.—
Kyle Thomas,
People.com,
22 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Empyrean.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/empyrean. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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