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a handsome face
an attractive face
a pleasing face
a lovely face
a fine face
a pretty face
a handsome profit
a hefty profit
a lovely profit
a generous profit
a healthy profit
a tidy profit
a handsome book
an attractive book
a beautiful book
a gorgeous book
an elegant book
an exquisite book

Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective handsome differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of handsome are beautiful, comely, fair, lovely, and pretty. While all these words mean "exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure," handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance.

a handsome Georgian mansion

When is it sensible to use beautiful instead of handsome?

While the synonyms beautiful and handsome are close in meaning, beautiful applies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses.

beautiful mountain scenery

How are the words comely and handsome related?

Comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to.

the comely grace of a dancer

When could fair be used to replace handsome?

The synonyms fair and handsome are sometimes interchangeable, but fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness.

fair of face

How do lovely and beautiful relate to one another, in the sense of handsome?

Lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite.

a lovely melody

When would pretty be a good substitute for handsome?

The words pretty and handsome can be used in similar contexts, but pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness.

a painter of conventionally pretty scenes

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of handsome In the film’s first half, a handsome British colonial official stationed in Rangoon, Edward Abbot (Gonçalo Waddington), flees his unseen fiancée, Molly (Crista Alfaiate), by drifting from city to city — Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Manila, Osaka, and farther. Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 28 Mar. 2025 Well, Elise looked to be in her 30s, with Lauren a few years older — handsome people, younger by a margin than my wife and me. Charles Hammer, Kansas City Star, 26 Mar. 2025 In addition to the handsome salary, Driskell asked for a building all his own for the art department. Chadd Scott, Forbes, 24 Mar. 2025 At forty-three, Longstreth is tall, left-handed, handsome, and creaturely. Anna Wiener, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for handsome
Recent Examples of Synonyms for handsome
Adjective
  • Roan often wears her hair down in soft red ringlets letting her bangs fall loose for a naturally graceful, modern look.
    Irene Coltrinari, Vogue, 1 Apr. 2025
  • He’s built like a wrestler, but graceful, too, an experienced kickboxer with a trademark, face-smashing spinning back-kick.
    John DeVore, Rolling Stone, 31 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • What the characters can or cannot do in response, and the catharsis they’re prevented from attaining, are both key parts of their story, and of life in the West Bank at large — a reality Nabulsi conveys in stark, realistic hues, despite her first-feature growing pains.
    Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 11 Apr. 2025
  • Having first launched in 2004, the Like a Version series has gone from being a near-impromptu acoustic affair to featuring larger studio productions.
    Tyler Jenke, Billboard, 11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Scrim's adventures were a national hit, and now they've been transformed into a beautiful picture book.
    American Booksellers Association, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025
  • There are these beautiful moments of the scene kind of mirroring the real world experience of having this happen in the show.
    Samantha Highfill, EW.com, 4 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • While the flagship Pixels are all screen from the front, there's a sizable gap between the edge of the OLED and the aluminum frame.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 10 Apr. 2025
  • The brand is also offering some seriously sizable discounts on select sale items.
    Alanna Martine Kilkeary, Glamour, 9 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Many reviews praised Fitzgerald’s elegant prose but dismissed the book’s literary significance.
    Nick Woltman, Twin Cities, 5 Apr. 2025
  • However, Rosewood Baha Mar is arguably the most elegant, drawing a more discerning and spendy crowd.
    Denny Lee, Travel + Leisure, 5 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Of finished medications ready for use, a substantial percentage are also manufactured overseas: India accounts for 48%, China 13%, and Europe another 7%.
    Robert Glatter and Peter Papadakos, Time, 8 Apr. 2025
  • It was allegedly discovered that all eight clients had substantial differences between the amount of money invested and what was in their accounts, according to the warrant affidavit.
    Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 8 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • There is this idea that top managers would like the job because there is so much talent, plus the style and brand of football are very attractive.
    The Totally Football Show, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Meanwhile, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, while sizable, have never had an NBA team and are likely less attractive options compared to San Diego.
    Giovanni Malloy, Forbes.com, 28 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • The platform recently launched its third-generation trading system, reducing order processing time from 20 milliseconds to just two milliseconds and handling up to 80,000 orders per second—a considerable achievement for a platform with trading volumes in the trillions.
    Sean Lee, Forbes.com, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Compiling the clips can take considerable research.
    James McNicholas, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Handsome.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/handsome. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.

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