otherworldly

Adjective

otherworldly (comparative more otherworldly, superlative most otherworldly)

1. Of, concerned with, or preoccupied with a world different from the tangible world, especially a fantasy, imaginary, or mystical world.
   • In Just My Type: A Book about Fonts (2010) Simon Garfield describes [Edward] Johnston as 'a gaunt fine-boned man with a full moustache', and there's a picture of him at work with a quill pen that makes him look as other-worldly as a medieval sprite.2012, Andrew Martin, “Everywhere in Trains”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, paperback edition, London: Profile Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 160
   • The bull kelp forests off Northern California are sometimes spoken of as the redwoods of the sea. And like the redwoods, these forests are in danger. In less than a decade, these otherworldly undersea landscapes, lush with life, have all but disappeared along 200 miles of coast north of San...2022 April 30, David Helvarg, “Climate change threatens another California forest, this one underwater”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...

   Synonyms:

   ethereal, transcendental, unworldly

   1. (figuratively) Odd and unfamiliar; strange, uncanny, weird.
      • He had not seen cricket played since the war began; it seemed almost other-worldly, with the click of the bats, and the shrill young voices, under the distant drone of that sky-hornet threshing along to Hendon.1919 October, John Galsworthy, chapter VII, in Saint’s Progress, London: William Heinemann, published December 1919, →OCLC, part III, 1 §, page 285
      • An almost otherworldly resilience has characterized the 40-year arc of the Clintons' political lives, a well-documented pattern of dazzling success, shattering setback and inevitable recovery.2015 April 15, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, it’s not hard to be humble in an effort to regain power”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
2. Of, concerned with, or preoccupied with spiritual matters.
   • Every religion that becomes ascendant, in so far as it is not other-worldly, must necessarily set its stamp upon the methods and administration of the law.1917 May, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Invisible King”, in God the Invisible King, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company […], →OCLC, § 7 (Adjusting Life), page 144
   • [Leo] Tolstoy was not a saint, but he tried very hard to make himself into a saint, and the standards he applied to literature were other-worldly ones.1947 March, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool”, in Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays, London: Secker and Warburg, published 1950, →OCLC, page 50

   Synonyms:

   unworldly

3. (broadly, obsolete, rare) Of or relating to the imagination or intellect.
   • It is easy with the other-worldly gifts to be a schöne Seele [beautiful soul]; but to the large vision of [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe that seemed to be a phase of life that a man might feel all round and leave behind him.1873, Walter H[oratio] Pater, “[Johann Joachim] Winckelmann”, in Studies in the History of the Renaissance, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 204