English

Noun

empyrean ‎(plural empyreans)

1. The region of pure light and fire; the highest heaven, where the pure element of fire was supposed by the ancients to exist: the same as the ether, the ninth heaven according to ancient astronomy.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Second Edition, Book VII

     So sung they, and the Empyrean rung, / With Halleluiahs:

   • 1863, Alfred Tennyson, Experiments in Quantity

     the deep-domed empyrean / Rings to the roar of an angel onset

   • 1908, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, Chapter I

     The very empyrean seemed to be a secret.

Adjective

empyrean ‎(not comparable)

1. of the sky or the heavens; celestially refined
   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis

     In th’empyrean heaven, the bless’d abode, / The Thrones and the Dominions prostrate lie, / Not daring to behold their angry God.

   • 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Saeculare

     Yet upward she [the goddess] incessant flies; / Resolv’d to reach the high empyrean Sphere.

   • 1818, John Keats, Endymion

     Lispings empyrean will ii sometimes teach / Thine honeyed tongue.

Synonyms

• empyreal

Related terms

• pyre

References

• empyrean in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1914