unearthly

[ uhn-urth-lee ]

adjective

1. seeming not to belong to this earth or world:

   unearthly beauty.

2. supernatural; ghostly; unnaturally strange; weird:

   an unearthly scream.

   Synonyms: spectral, preternatural

3. out of the ordinary; unreasonable or absurd:

   to get up at an unearthly hour.

unearthly

/ ʌnˈɜːθlɪ /

adjective

1. ghostly; eerie; weird

   unearthly screams

2. heavenly; sublime

   unearthly music

3. ridiculous or unreasonable (esp in the phrase unearthly hour )

Derived Forms

• unˈearthliness, noun

Other Words From

• un·earthli·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of unearthly¹

First recorded in 1605–15; un- ¹ + earthly

Synonym Study

See weird.

Example Sentences

“It was going to be almost a vocal earthwork,” said Aitken, who tends to think and speak in floating, unearthly concepts.

From Los Angeles Times

And achieve an unearthly summit.

From Los Angeles Times

They did not leave disappointed as the sun shrank to a crescent-like sliver of light that cast an unearthly pale gloom over the city.

From BBC

In a profile in The Daily News after the album’s release, the columnist Pete Hamill singled out one track, “Under the Moon and Over the Sky” — one of four songs on the album that Ms. Bofill wrote or co-wrote — as “a city dream: lyrical and defiant, with the congas rolling through the middle, and the sounds of Santeria add a thread of the unearthly.”

From New York Times

In the first ever episode, An Unearthly Child, which aired in 1963, Russell's character meets the Doctor, played by William Hartnell.

From BBC