Sublime

How to spell sublime

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sublime

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sublime mean?

1. adjectiveOf such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.
2. verbTo change directly from a solid to a vapour without passing through a liquid stage.

Sublime in a sentence

• adjective

  The view from the mountain hut was utterly sublime at dawn.

• verb

  Dry ice will sublime at room temperature, leaving no puddle behind.

• adjective

  Critics called her final performance sublime and unforgettable.

• verb

  Iodine crystals sublime when gently heated in a sealed flask.

Where does sublime come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Sublime comes from the Latin adjective sublimis, meaning 'lofty', 'raised on high', or 'uplifted'. The most common explanation breaks it into sub, here carrying the sense of 'up to', and limen, meaning 'threshold' or 'lintel', so that something sublime was figuratively raised as high as the doorway's top beam; some scholars instead connect the second part to limus, 'oblique' or 'slanting upward'. English borrowed the word in the late 1500s, partly through French, first describing things lifted up physically and soon afterward describing lofty thought, elevated style, and feelings of awe. The chemistry sense, where a solid turns straight into vapour without melting, also drew on the idea of a substance rising, and it gave us the related noun sublimation. The spelling trap is the silent final 'e' and the single 'b', since the word looks as if it might double a consonant but never does.

How the word is built

• sub- (up to, under)
• lime (from limen: threshold, or limus: oblique) forming Latin sublimis 'lofty, raised on high'