The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sublimity \Sub*lim"i*ty\, n.; pl. Sublimities. [L. sublimitas: cf. F. sublimit['e].]
The quality or state of being sublime (in any sense of the adjective).
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That which is sublime; as, the sublimities of nature.
Syn: Grandeur; magnificence.
Usage: Sublimity, Grandeur. The mental state indicated by these two words is the same, namely, a mingled emotion of astonishment and awe. In speaking of the quality which produces this emotion, we call it grandeur when it springs from what is vast in space, power, etc.; we call it sublimity when it springs from what is elevated far above the ordinary incidents of humanity. An immense plain is grand. The heavens are not only grand, but sublime (as the predominating emotion), from their immense height. Exalted intellect, and especially exalted virtue under severe trials, give us the sense of moral sublimity, as in the case of our Savior in his prayer for his murderers. We do not speak of Satan, when standing by the fiery gulf, with his ``unconquerable will and study of revenge,'' as a sublime object; but there is a melancholy grandeur thrown around him, as of an ``archangel ruined.''
Wiktionary
n. (plural of sublimity English)
Usage examples of "sublimities".
Or further still, beyond snake‑and‑ladder, should we see the Hand of Fate in the quarrel‑and say, in order for Musa to return as explosive ghost, in order for him to adopt the role of Bomb‑in‑Bombay, it was necessary to engineer a departure… or, descending from such sublimities to the ridiculous, could it be that Ahmed Sinai‑whom whisky provoked, whom djinns goaded into excesses of rudeness‑had so incensed the aged bearer that his crime, with which he equalled Mary's record, was committed out of the injured pride of an abused old servitor‑and was nothing to do with Mary at all?
He would have feared those sublimities whence some very great men even, like Swedenborg and Pascal, have slipped into insanity.
He would have dreaded those sublimities from which some very great men even, like Swedenborg and Pascal, have glided into insanity.
We shall find in him new sublimities which we had never tasted before, and find beauties in our ancient poets which are lost to us now.