gemütlich means comfortable, cosy, pleasant. It carries an Arena rating of 1651, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gemütlich ranks #4,776 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #5,167 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #5,230 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,505 of 17,151 for The Improbable.
gemütlich is pronounced /ɡəˈmytlɪç/.
Why “gemütlich” is a great word
Pleasantly comfortable, cozy, and conducive to a feeling of cheerful, easy-going contentment. It is an unadapted borrowing from German gemütlich, from Middle High German gemüetlich, from gemüet ("mind, mentality") + -lich ("-ly"), equivalent to Gemüt ("mind, soul, feeling") + -lich ("-ly"), first recorded in English use in the 1850s. Unlike "cozy," which conjures the physical snugness of a solitary nook, or "genial," which describes a person’s sunny disposition, gemütlich is the warmth generated by shared, unhurried fellowship. It is the amber glow of a tavern where conversation flows as easily as the beer, the companionable silence of old friends by a crackling hearth, and the convivial clutter of a well-used parlour—a sanctuary where the soul, and not just the body, is permitted to unclench.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from German gemütlich, from Middle High German gemüetlich, from gemüet (“mind, mentality”) + -lich (“-ly”), equivalent to Gemüt (“mind, soul”) + -lich (“-ly”). More at mood, -ly.
adj
- Comfortable, cosy, pleasant.e.g.“[She] takes splendid care of her husband, and looks after their five-room apartment, with its gemütlich mélange of plump hassocks and squashy chairs and cream-colored lace window curtains.” — 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, section 4, page 251:
- Friendly, genial, cheerful, easy-going.e.g.“My mother, being gemütlich by nature, would, I believe, have loved to dispense with servants altogether.” — 1929, Robert Graves, chapter 2, in Good-Bye to All That, page 15:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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