These words refer to pleasing facial appearances. Beautiful indicates a strikingly desirable or attractive face, suggesting symmetry of features or perfection of proportion, although ultimately the word is dependent on the subjective taste of the user. Because of this it is extremely unspecific in reference, although it would most often be used of a woman’s face. Good-looking is equally as weak in specificity, but it can be used appropriately of both men and women: a good-looking couple.

Handsome and pretty are complementary terms in that handsome usually applies to men and pretty even more exclusively to women. Pretty , however, indicates a less elevated or more superficial appeal than beautiful : the rare woman who is truly beautiful as opposed to the many who are merely pretty . In this opposition, pretty might suggest vivacity and sweetness, while beautiful might suggest elegance and nobility. Handsome , used of men, is comparable to beautiful , used of women, suggesting regularity of features and a sturdy manliness. Sometimes handsome may be used of women as well, in which case it does not, strangely enough, suggest an epicene mannishness, but a radiant force of almost animal good health and vividness: insisting that Garbo was not merely beautiful , but breathtakingly handsome . Handsome in this sense would be used only of mature women, never of girls. Pretty would never be used of a man, except pejoratively to suggest effeminacy. Beautiful may rarely be used of a man without negative effect; in this case the face is usually regarded in an artistic light or as redolent of some special attribute: a man with beautiful features; a beautiful and expressive face that spoke both of strength and of suffering.

Because comely may now sound outdated, it is sometimes used to suggest earthy or rustic good looks in women: the comely milkmaid in a Constable painting. Once its particular emphasis, however, was on freedom from blemish, as in the Song of Solomon: "I am black, but comely.?Cute is an informal word for prettiness in women that suggests general attractiveness and cheerfulness; thus it conveys something a little less than pretty . Cute may also be used by women to describe men who may not be handsome but who are boyish or sweet-tempered. Gorgeous is sometimes used hyperbolically to refer to someone extremely beautiful or handsome ; like many hyperboles its extravagance has tended to strip it of meaning.