How to Use numinous in a Sentence

numinous

adjective
  • Her poetry is filled with a numinous beauty.
  • The fruit in those same kitchens looked numinous in the morning light.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2022
  • Its outside is battered and crusty, but the inside shines numinous in gold leaf.
    — Sharon Mizota, latimes.com, 10 Mar. 2018
  • Armed with the right mind-set, the familiar could become numinous.
    — Henry Wismayer, Washington Post, 8 Sep. 2021
  • Ecstatic or even numinous encounters at the edges of the earth.
    — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2020
  • His desire is to show the ever-so-slightly numinous in the ordinary.
    — Alexis Soloski, New York Times, 11 Jan. 2017
  • Pisces is ruled by numinous Neptune, which is why they’re often described as ethereal and out of this world.
    — Valerie Mesa, Peoplemag, 18 May 2024
  • And this, too, was a play that memorably made room for the numinous, the inexplicable.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 6 Apr. 2020
  • Buddy Holly’s puppy love malt shop rock n’ roll repurposed for this numinous oath.
    — Jeff Weiss, Spin, 21 Aug. 2023
  • Other cathedrals have dreamed up even more eccentric ways to make use of the vast, numinous spaces under their control.
    — The Economist, 10 Oct. 2019
  • Still, its trine to numinous Neptune inspires you to expand your horizons and share your visions and ideas with others.
    — Valerie Mesa, People.com, 28 June 2025
  • Mars and Neptune’s harmonious connection puts you in touch with the numinous.
    — USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2025
  • Still, the mood shifts as the day progresses, thanks to a semi-square between the love planet and numinous Neptune.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 13 Apr. 2026
  • The moon spends the day drifting through the numinous and intuitive sign of Pisces, pulling our attention inward.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 11 May 2026
  • His magic isn’t numinous or ethereal.
    — Lev Grossman, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2025
  • The music in Stardew Valley can feel buoyant, melancholy, or numinous—sometimes all three at once.
    — Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, 30 Dec. 2019
  • In an old-growth forest, the beauty of old trees intertwines with the bodies of those trying to save them, creating something numinous.
    — Robert Moor, New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2026
  • In this numinous world, visitors come by for death bed reckonings, and the CEO will have many scores to settle.
    — Emma Alpern, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2025
  • The former receive all the press and relate to the feeling of an overwhelming presence, something numinous, divine.
    — Christof Koch, Scientific American, 19 May 2020
  • In the living room, Solomun recalled numinous moments from recent performances.
    — Ed Caesar, The New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2022
  • María Elena moved through a world that was haunted by spirits, numinous presences who could give comfort and advice or demand sacrifice and appeasement.
    — New York Times, 2 Feb. 2021
  • As Greenberg was pondering this numinous feeling, someone tapped him on the shoulder and interrupted his reverie.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 19 Apr. 2022
  • The creaky Romantic fantasy of the numinous artist, isolated from mundane labors, turning her back on the modern world to get in touch with higher truths, is on display.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2022
  • The falling from the sky of ice crystals is the product of natural rules; but numinous causes and compossibilities now suggested themselves.
    — Joseph O’Neill, The New Yorker, 21 June 2018
  • Set in the fairy tale-like beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the film captures a numinous world that shimmers between the visionary and natural.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2021
  • There’s a place among the numinous for the right kind of mortal, and Rupert makes a tentative, if ugly, living here and on the edges of Kuala Lumpur’s underworld.
    — New York Times, 18 May 2017
  • With numinous Neptune officially transiting your dutiful sixth house of health, work, routines and day-to-day affairs, your lifestyle is evolving.
    — Valerie Mesa, People.com, 30 Mar. 2025
  • The following day, one of the most exciting moments of the year arrives, as numinous planet Neptune enters your sign for the first time since the late 1800s.
    — Nina Kahn, StyleCaster, 24 Feb. 2025
  • The filmmaker’s signal accomplishment is to reveal Gia’s experiences, at civic and intimate levels, with friends and with strangers, as the numinous stuff of her inner life.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 13 July 2023
  • This understanding of existence as both concrete and numinous jibed with Ellis’s photographic practice.
    — Chris Wiley, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'numinous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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