empyrean

/ɛmˌpaɪˈɹiːn̩/

empyrean noun: the highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to be a region of pure light and fire or else composed of ether, and sometimes seen as the dwelling-place of God or other divine beings; the highest celestial sphere according to ancient and medieval astronomy.

Noun

empyrean (plural empyreans)

(historical) The highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to be a region of pure light and fire or else composed of ether, and sometimes seen as the dwelling-place of God or other divine beings; the highest celestial sphere according to ancient and medieval astronomy.
- So ſung they, and the Empyrean rung,
  With Halleluiahs: […]1674, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 192
- Perchance they mark
  Where India's cliffs the trembling cloud invade,
  Or Andes with his fiery banner flouts
  The empyrean,...1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, To the Moon, page 14

Adjective

empyrean (not comparable)

Of the sky or the heavens, and particularly relating to the highest celestial sphere in premodern cosmology; celestially refined.
- In th' Empyrean Heaven, (the bleſs'd Abode) / The Thrones and the Dominions proſtrate lie, / Not daring to behold their angry God: / And an huſh'd ſilence damps the tuneful sky.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 270, page 71
- Yet upward she [the goddess] incessant flies;
  Resolv’d to reach the high empyrean Sphere.1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Saeculare
Synonyms:

empyreal
French: empyréen (fr)

empyrean meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

empyrean in Tamil

சொர்க்கம், தேவலோகம், பரமபதம், வானம்

empyrean in Bengali

সর্বোচ্চ আকাশ, স্বর্গ, নক্ষত্রমণ্ডলী

empyrean in Malayalam

heavenly, celestial, ethereal: സ്വർഗ്ഗീയമായ, സ്വർഗ്ഗസ്ഥമായ, ദിവ്യമായ, വിണ്ണിലുള്ള, സ്വർഗ്ഗ്യ, ആകാശത്തിലുള്ള
(the empyrean) heven, the hevens, the sky: ദേവലോകം, ഇന്ദ്രപദം, സ്വർഗ്ഗം, വിണ്ണ്, വാൻ, വാനകം

Examples of empyrean in a sentence

She would be able to arrange her life as she pleased, to soar into that empyrean of security where creditors cannot penetrate.1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
The very empyrean seemed to be a secret.1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Two Poets of Saffron Park”, in The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams]...
Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach / Thine honied tongue— […]1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 91...
[…] it was like those gods of Epicurus, who saw the doings of men from their empyrean heights and had no might to alter one smallest particle of what occurred.1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

Synonyms of empyrean

empyreal

Forms of empyrean

plural	empyreans

Origin of empyrean

From Latin empȳreus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπύριος (empúrios), from ἐν (en, “in”) + πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) (whence English pyre).

Words formed from empyrean

superempyrean

Questions about empyrean

What does empyrean mean?: Empyrean means the highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to be a region of pure light and fire or else composed of ether, and sometimes seen as the dwelling-place of God or other divine beings; the highest celestial sphere according to ancient and medieval astronomy.
What is empyrean in Tamil?: Empyrean in Tamil is சொர்க்கம், தேவலோகம், பரமபதம். See Empyrean meaning in Tamil.
How do you use empyrean in a sentence?: She would be able to arrange her life as she pleased, to soar into that empyrean of security where creditors cannot penetrate.
What part of speech is empyrean?: Empyrean can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce empyrean?: Empyrean is pronounced /ɛmˌpaɪˈɹiːn̩/.
What is the plural of empyrean?: The plural of empyrean is empyreans.

Words near empyrean in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: empyrean (page history and authors); empyrean (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); empyrean (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); empyrean (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-empyrean.wav.

Cite this entry: “empyrean.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/empyrean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.