pulchritudinous ˌpəl-krə-ˈtüd-nəs adjective
: having great physical beauty (used only to describe people)
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The word pulchritudinous has appeared in five articles on NYTimes.com in the past four years, including on March 30, 2017, in the theater review “Pathos Times Two: A Double Dose of Inge, in Close Quarters” by Elisabeth Vincentelli:
In “Picnic,” Hal (the likable but distractingly gym-buffed David T. Patterson) is an ebullient drifter who lands in a small Kansas town and starts doing odd jobs for Mrs. Potts (Heather MacRae). The mere presence of this pulchritudinous life force sends the local women into a spin, from a suddenly giddy Mrs. Potts to the young beauty Madge (Ginna Le Vine) to the single schoolteacher Rosemary (Emily Skinner). Even Madge’s boyfriend, Alan (Rowan Vickers), gets a touch of Hal fever.
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