To our minds, however, certain exalted things cannot be lumped with the golf shots, hairdos, and chewy mouthfuls we call great or terrific. Unlike our animal companions, we have a notion of entities and concepts that transcend such terms. We place these higher things in a category sometimes called “the sublime” or “the sacred,” and we acclaim them with elevated language.
As our list shows, much of the sublime has to do with religion—reverence for the divine and holy—and with the often-related qualities of perfection and purity. Acclaim such as almighty or all-embracing is usually reserved for one’s deities, but heavenly and its synonyms (celestial , empyreal, supernal) might be applied to things that merely approach the qualities (and height) of the Holy Kingdom.
The perfection addressed under our “Great” category is the worldly kind—the “perfect rice every time,” the “perfect-game” pitching performance in baseball. But under “Sublime,” we are in the realm of perfection beyond judgment, of the omega point and pure pneuma (see definitions).
While sublimity is serious business, its acclaim is not always without personality. A playful phrase like whelp of the gods still lofts one above mortals. What does taint the sublimity of a term is its application to anyone and anything, as in trivializations of Tao (ultimate reality) from “the Tao of Poker” to “the Tao of Tattoos.” Or think of all the cheesy products we call pure. Before you know it someone will be calling me seraphic at the least beating of my wings.
TERMS
absolved of wrong
afflated (having a divine inspiration from within)
afflatus, an (breath of divine inspiration from within)
algorithm of perfection, an
all-embracing appearing to humankind)
anointed
apotheosis, an (deification, exalted example, most glorious level)
archangelic
arrived at Kingdom Come
“Walking [on a tightwire] was a divine delight. Everything was rewritten when he was up in the air. New things were possible with the human form. It went beyond equilibrium. He felt for a moment uncreated. Another kind of awake.”
—Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin, 2009
all-knowing
all-pervading
all-powerful
almighty
angel-hatched
angelical
angelophanic (ref., angels
ascendant
astral (elevated like the stars, exalted)
astrogation to divine light, an (ref., spacecraft navigation)
at the threshold of divine
atman, of the (universal soul or spirit, Hinduism)
aubade to the dawn of perfection, an (song or poem greeting the dawn or morning)
awakening, an
beatific (of heavenly bliss)
beatified (made sacredly blissful; declared holy)
beau ideal, the (perfect or idealized type or model)
benediction, a
beyond appellation
beyond appraisal
beyond equilibrium
beyond judgment
beyond utterance
blessed
Brahmin (high-priestly)
buddhi-driven (ref., intuitive, truth-discerning intellect, Hinduism)
called (summoned, as if by divinity)
Camelot, a
canonical
celestial
cheek by jowl with perfection
chosen, the
Christlike
churchlike sanctity, a
City Celestial, of (heavenly)
cloud-piercingly ascendant
communion with grace, a
communion with perfection, a
consecrated (set apart as sacred)
cut above perfection, a
cynosure of devotion, a (attracting devotion)
cynosure of piety, a (attracting piety)
darshan moment, a (seeing a holy personage or deity, Hinduism)
deathless
defies denomination
demigod, a
devotion-worthy
divine breath, a
divine grandeur
divinity incarnate
Eden refreshed
elevated
elysian (yielding paradisal bliss)
Elysium, an/ Elysian Fields, the (Ancient Greek heaven; blissful place or state)
emblem of perfection, an
empyreal (celestial, of the empyrean or heavens)
enlightened one, the
ennobled
enshrined
enskyed (placed in the heavens)
enthroned
epiphanic (yielding epiphany, revelation)
eternal
etheric plane, the (neo-Theosophical /Rosicrucian higher plane of existence)
eudaemonic (conducive to reason-based happiness)
God’s dream manifest
God’s opus
god-begotten
“God-breathed” (—2 Timothy 3:16)
godlike
gone home to the Promised Land
gone home to Zion
graced
grovel-at-the-feet-of divine
hallowed
“How it cleaves the empyrean and makes the welkin ring as it glitters in the sunshine of high noon….”
—Montgomery Schuyler, of the Woolworth Building, Manhattan, 1913
everlasting light, the
evokes the gods
exalted
fall-back-in-awe supreme
fall-prostrate-before sublime
fruit of infinite prayers, the
full of grace
genuflection-worthy
glorious
God’s music
heaven here and now
heaven-born
heavenly
heaven-minted
holiness embodied
Holy Grail, the (lofty goal; spiritual union with the divine)
hymned and canticled (praised by song)
immortal
in peak experience (state of transcendent ecstatic, religious, epiphanic experience)
in the bosom of Abraham (received in heaven)
incommensurably great (nothing can be measured against it)
incomprehensibly divine
inconceivable, the
ineffable (beyond expression)
ineluctable power, the (inescapable)
inenarrable (beyond narration)
inerrant (free of error; infallible)
inestimable (too great to estimate)
infallible
Infinite One, the
innominate (unnamable)
inspired
intimation of sublimity, an
kin to perfection
land of milk and honey, a
lapidary perfection (precisely engraved)
let-it-be-adulated-extolled-and-adored
let-it-be-glorified
let-it-be-hallelujahed
let-it-be-hosanna’d
let-it-be-praised
let-it-be-sung-in-hymns-andpaeans
let-it-be-worshipped
“Lifter up of mine head” (—St. Augustine, The City of God)
Light, The
lofty
maha (Hin.: great, as in maharishi, “great seer”)
Messianic
mosquelike
music of the celestial spheres (perfect harmony)
naked perfection, of
New Jerusalem, the (heaven to come)
nirvanic (ref., Buddhist/Hindu nirvana or elevated state)
numinous (spiritually elevated; filled with sense of supernatural presence)
oblation, an (gift offering to the gods)
of papal majesty
of the City of God (forgoes earthly pleasures and glory, Christianity)
Olympian
Olympus-bound
omega point, the (theologian’s term for ultimate evolution of human consciousness)
omnipotent
omniscient (all-knowing)
on an astral plane
Osirian (like Egyptian god of the dead Osiris, whose annual resurrection symbolizes renewal)
pantheonic (suitable as a temple for gods)
paradisal
paradise here and now
Perfect Master, the (highest rank in certain spiritual systems)
perfection crystallized
perfection embodied
perfection imprinted
pierces the empyrean (the highest heaven)
pierces/touches heaven’s vault
portentous (marvelous, wonderful; also, foreboding ill)
portrait of perfection, a
prelapsarian (of the time or state before the fall of Adam and Eve)
pretersensual (beyond what can be sensed)
priestly
prime mover, the
prostrate oneself before, to
providential
pure anima (soul)
pure pneuma (soul, Stoicism)
purified
purusha, of the (eternal soul or self, Hinduism)
pyx, a (container to hold the Eucharist; container of precious things)
quail-before-it perfection
quaver-at-its-name sublime
quintessential (representing the most perfect embodiment)
Rapture, the (ascension of Christian souls gathered to meet Christ)
rapturous
redemption of humankind, a
revelation, a
revelational
rings the welkin (vault of heaven)
risen to Elysium
saintly
samadhi (Hindu/Buddhist highest state of consciousness, oneness with universe)
sanctified
satori (Zen Buddhist sudden awakening to reality)
seraph, a (angel of highest order) seraphic
“Sire of an immortal strain” (—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Adonaïs”)
snippet of the sublime, a
sojourn through paradise, a
supersensible (beyond sense perception)
supersensual (beyond range of the senses; spiritual)
supreme
tabernacle, of the (container/ sanctuary of sacred items)
Tao, the (ultimate reality)
templelike
theophanous-like (like a deity
“America was charmed by Obama’s supernal speeches….”
—Charles M. Blow, New York Times, June 19, 2010
sovereign
splendorous
state of sublimity, a
stone’s throw from sublime, a
sublime
suffused with grace
summa cum laude (earning highest praise)
summons to worship, a
supernal (exalted to heaven; celestial, greater than earthly) appearing before one)
theophany, a (appearance of a deity before a person)
“thrice and four times blessed” (—Virgil, The Aeneid)
“throned in highest bliss” (—John Milton, Paradise Lost)
totemic (emblematic or symbolic of something venerated)
transcendent
transfigurement, a (transforming of appearance revealing exalted quality)
transfinite (surpassing the finite)
triplicity of perfection, a
undefiled
unerring
unfathomable
unquestionable, the
unspeakably majestic
unspotted
unutterably glorious
unutterably holy
Valhalla-bound
vision mirabilis, a (miraculous)
visitation, a
Way, The
whelp of the gods, a (child, pup)
“[T]he band upon the stage like a visitation from a world of rhythm.”
—Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 2007
Exalted 
