rarefied

adjective

rar·​e·​fied ˈrer-ə-ˌfīd 

variants or less commonly rarified

1

: being less dense

2

: of, relating to, or interesting to a select group : esoteric

3

: very high

Did you know?

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 Web

Within that rarefied subset, only a handful were RS variants. —Sean Evans, Robb Report, 30 Oct. 2024

And he’s joined an operation that’s in rarefied air — as one of only four companies in the U.S. with an operational orbital rocket — with growing spacecraft and lunar lander product lines. —Michael Sheetz, CNBC, 29 Oct. 2024

On the Olympic court, Durant is in even more rarefied air. —Brett Knight, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024

Like most superstars, there is, of course, the rarefied celebrity world Dion occupies where aspiring vocalists no doubt chase the star down for the chance to get a leg up in the biz. —Nathan Smith, Vulture, 26 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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