luscious means sweet and pleasant; delicious; juicy, succulent. It carries an Arena rating of 1821, earned across 21 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, luscious ranks #999 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #1,164 of 17,120 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,179 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #2,900 of 17,114 for Most Satisfying to Say.
luscious is pronounced /ˈlʌʃəs/.
Why “luscious” is a great word
Having a pleasingly rich, sweet, or full taste or smell that appeals to the senses in a richly satisfying or voluptuous manner. From late Middle English *lucius*, an unexplained variant of *licius*, an aphetic form of *delicious*; an alternative historical explanation is a corruption of *lustious*, from *lusty* ("pleasant, delicious") + *-ous*. Unlike "delicious," which centers on gustatory pleasure, or "succulent," which specifies a practical juiciness, "luscious" is an adjective of opulent, almost decadent sensation. It is the deep crimson of a plum splitting under the thumb, the velvet drip of dark honey over warm bread, the heavy scent of tuberose saturating a summer dusk—a word that speaks to a hunger beyond mere appetite, where pleasure lingers in the blood like a blush of the senses.
Etymology
From earlier lushious, lussyouse (“luscious, richly sweet, delicious”), a corruption of lustious, from lusty (“pleasant, delicious”) + -ous. Shakespeare uses both lush (short for lushious) and lusty in the same sense: "How lush and lusty the grass looks" (The Tempest ii. I.52).
An alternative etymology connects luscious to a Middle English term: lucius, an alteration of licious, believed to be a shortening of delicious.
adj
- Sweet and pleasant; delicious; juicy, succulent.e.g.“Her lips were like two luscious beefsteaks.”
- Sexually appealing; seductive.e.g.“With one hand he gently disclosed the lips of that luscious mouth of nature.”
- Obscene.e.g.“Hitherto I had been indebted only to the girls of the house for the corruption of my innocence: their luscious talk, in which modesty was far from respected.”
Words closest in meaning
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