Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 11 July 2021 Imprinted in the light of these wisps of subliming vapor are the fingerprints of a comet’s chemical composition. Recent Examples on the Web: Verb Each one of them was the historical equivalent of a chemical phase change-when water, say, grows hot enough to sublime into steam or cold enough to harden into ice. The sublime beauty of the canyon See More He composed some of the most sublime symphonies in existence. Kathleen Brennan, Saveur, November 2004 Even when he is paying homage to her sublime beauty, he cannot resist inserting himself as the man responsible for unleashing that beauty's potency. Tom Piazza, Why New Orleans Matters, 2005 Judging by the satisfied look that settles on both men's faces, the meal was sublime. New Orleans is the interaction among all those things, and countless more. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 1891 Adjective New Orleans is not just a list of attractions or restaurants or ceremonies, no matter how sublime and subtle. McKinnon et al., Encyclopedia Of The Solar System, 1999 The cursory remarks of the large-minded stranger, of whom he knew absolutely nothing beyond a commonplace name, were sublimed by his death, and influenced Clare more than all the reasoned ethics of the philosophers. Verb … models indicate that frost in most of the southern hemisphere is currently subliming, thinning the surface deposits. Sublimate has had several meanings as a verb (including “to elevate to a place of honor” and “to give a more elevated character to”) before coming to its common meaning today, which is “to divert the expression of (an instinctual desire or impulse) from its unacceptable form to one that is considered more socially or culturally acceptable.”

Sublime was first used as a verb with the above meaning, and after a century or two of such use took on the adjectival role in which it is often found today (“the concert was a sublime experience”). Both share the meaning “to cause to pass directly from the solid to the vapor state and condense back to solid form,” although this is not widely used except among chemists. The two words are indeed related, and in some senses are in fact synonymous.

However, the most common senses in which each of these words is used today are dissimilar enough to give pause. At first glance, the question of whether sublime and sublimate are related might seem like an easy one to answer, as they appear to come from the same source.

Sublime synonym