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

Sean Baker is in rarefied air after winning four Academy Awards at the Oscars 2025. —Tommy McArdle, People.com, 3 Mar. 2025

But the battlefield for me is the rarefied air of the gatekeepers. —Giulia Carbonaro, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2025

Here’s a look at a few other records and milestones that remain rarefied in sports history. —Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 30 Jan. 2025

At the most rarefied level of Swiss watchmaking, however, where gifted individuals work alone or with only an assistant or two to craft timepieces largely by hand, questions about foreign manufacturing may be moot. —Allen Farmelo, Robb Report, 17 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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