: of, relating to, or interesting to a select group : esoteric
3
: very high
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In the upper reaches of Chomolungma, known more familiarly as Mount Everest, the air is so rarefied—so much less dense than at lower elevations—that most climbers use supplemental oxygen in order to successfully complete their climb. This sense of rarefied, a word that comes from a combination of the Latin words rarus (“thin” or “rare”) and facere (“to make”), has been in use since the 1500s. A second, figurative sense of rarefied developed in the following century to describe things that can only be understood by a small or select group, i.e. one “thinned” from the majority of people by dint of their unique experience, expertise, or status. It’s this sense that we use when we say that to successfully summit Chomolungma puts one in rarefied company—just over 6,000 people have made it to the top at the time of this writing.
Examples of rarefied in a Sentence
It's difficult to breathe in the rarefied air near the mountain's peak.
Recent Examples on the WebAll pasta was a rarefied food in the Middle Ages, but few forms captured the popular imagination as completely as stuffed pasta, considered the noblest of the species.—Dawn Davis Sharon Radisch Soneela Nankani Emma Kehlbeck Joel Thibodeau, New York Times, 13 May 2024 The battle is all about rarefied graphite, an essential material for EV batteries.—Dylan Sloan, Fortune, 6 May 2024 Numbering roughly 60, we were split into two groups and would embark on this rarefied fitness class, overseen by four coaches, from opposite directions.—Amy Verner, Vogue, 2 May 2024 For decades, Day Boat Fresh was one of only a handful of options for chefs around the country who wanted this kind of rarefied seafood.—Melissa Clark, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2024 The Suns have had some great players over the years; only Charles Barkley is in the same rarefied air as Durant.—Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2024 Now Porsche joins this rarefied, all-electric club with its 2025 Taycan Turbo GT.—Peter Bleakney, Robb Report, 16 Apr. 2024 And, as all four Champions League quarterfinals this week proved rather neatly, at this rarefied level, there is precious little qualitative difference between the players who make up the teams.—Rory Smith, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2024 Jennifer Lawrence, who is a walking advert for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s rarefied wrong shoes, capacious totes, and swaddling cashmere (perfect for hiding from the paps in).—Alice Newbold, Vogue, 27 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rarefied.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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