Aesthetics

How to spell aesthetics

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce aesthetics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does aesthetics mean?

1. nounThe branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty, art, and taste.
2. nounThe set of principles or qualities that govern how something looks and pleases the senses.

Aesthetics in a sentence

• The lecturer specialised in the aesthetics of Renaissance painting.

• The redesign improved the aesthetics of the website without changing its features.

• A course in aesthetics examines why certain works are judged beautiful.

• The kitchen's clean lines reflect a minimalist aesthetics.

Where does aesthetics come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek aisthetikos, meaning 'relating to perception by the senses', which itself grew from the verb aisthanesthai, 'to perceive' or 'to feel'. For most of its history the root concerned sensation in general rather than beauty in particular. The modern meaning was effectively coined in 1735 by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten, who used the Latinised Aesthetica as the name for a new science of how we perceive beauty and taste. English adopted the term in the early 1800s, keeping the Greek-derived 'ae' opening and the 'th' that mirror its classical ancestry. That 'aes' beginning is the chief spelling trap, since the word is pronounced as if it simply started with 'es', and the silent partner of the digraph catches many writers out.

How the word is built

• aesthet- (from Greek aisthetikos: relating to perception or the senses)
• -ics (suffix forming a field of study)

British and American spelling

Aesthetics is the British spelling. American English spells it esthetics.