Ethereal \E*the"re*al\, a.

1. Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions. [1913 Webster]

Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger. --Milton. [1913 Webster]

2. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc. [1913 Webster]

Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

3. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether; as, ethereal salts. [1913 Webster]

Ethereal oil. (Chem.) See Essential oil, under Essential.

Ethereal oil of wine (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after etherification. Called also heavy oil of wine (distinguished from oil of wine, or [oe]nanthic ether).

Ethereal salt (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a base; an ester. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

229 Moby Thesaurus words for "ethereal": Elysian, Olympian, adulterated, aerial, aeriform, aerodynamic, aerostatic, aery, air-built, airish, airlike, airy, alfresco, altitudinous, ascending, asomatous, aspiring, astral, atmospheric, attenuate, attenuated, beatific, beatified, blessed, bodiless, boyish, breezy, bubbly, celestial, chimeric, chimerical, cloud-born, cloud-built, cloud-woven, colossal, cut, decarnate, decarnated, delicate, diaphanous, dilute, diluted, discarnate, disembodied, dominating, downy, dreamlike, ectoplasmic, elevated, eminent, empyreal, empyrean, etheric, exalted, exposed, extramundane, extraterrestrial, fanciful, fatuitous, fatuous, feathery, filmy, fine, fine-drawn, finespun, flimsy, fluffy, foamy, fragile, frail, from on high, frothy, fuming, fumy, gaseous, gasified, gasiform, gaslike, gassy, gauzy, ghostish, ghostlike, ghostly, ghosty, girlish, glorified, gossamer, gossamery, gracile, haughty, heavenly, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set, high-up, illusory, imaginary, immaterial, impalpable, imponderable, imponderous, in glory, incorporate, incorporeal, insubstantial, intangible, lacy, leger, light, light as air, lighter than vanity, lofty, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, misty, monumental, mounting, mousse, nonmaterial, nonphysical, occult, open-air, otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, oxyacetylene, oxygenous, ozonic, papery, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac, paradisic, phantasmal, phantasmic, phantom, phantomic, phantomlike, pneumatic, prominent, psychic, rare, rarefied, reeking, reeky, roomy, shadowy, slender, slenderish, slight, slight-made, slim, slimmish, slinky, small, smoking, smoky, soaring, souffle, specterlike, spectral, spiring, spiritual, spirituous, steaming, steamy, steep, sublime, subtile, subtle, superlative, supernal, supernatural, svelte, sylphlike, tenuous, thin, thin-bodied, thin-set, thin-spun, thinned, thinned-out, thinnish, threadlike, topless, toplofty, topping, towering, towery, transcendental, transmundane, tropospheric, uncompact, uncompressed, unearthly, unembodied, unextended, unfleshly, unheavy, unphysical, unreal, unsubstantial, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, vague, vaporing, vaporish, vaporlike, vaporous, vapory, volatile, wasp-waisted, watered, watered-down, watery, weak, weightless, willowy, windy, wiredrawn, wispy, wraithlike, wraithy, yeasty

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

ethereal adj
1: characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air; "figures light and aeriform come unlooked for and melt away"- Thomas Carlyle; "aerial fancies"; "an airy apparition"; "physical rather than ethereal forms" [syn: aeriform, aerial, airy, aery]
2: of or containing or dissolved in ether; "ethereal solution"
3: of heaven or the spirit; "celestial peace"; "ethereal melodies"; "the supernal happiness of a quiet death" [syn: celestial, supernal]
4: characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy; "this smallest and most ethereal of birds"; "gossamer shading through his playing" [syn: gossamer]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0
 

Ethereal \E*the"re*al\, a.

1. Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.

Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger. --Milton.

2. Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.

Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man. --Pope.

3. (Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether; as, ethereal salts.

Ethereal oil. (Chem.) See Essential oil, under Essential.

Ethereal oil of wine (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after etherification. Called also heavy oil of wine (distinguished from oil of wine, or [oe]nanthic ether).

Ethereal salt (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a base; an ester.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)