stunning/beyond reproach

astonishing, amazing, marvellous, overwhelming, colossal, terrific, stupendous... I could continue practically ad infinitum. Pick your own adjective.



are there any better terms?

The virtue of beauty contest contestants could be above reproach, above criticism, but while beauty may be an occasion for sin it is not an expression of sin.

Rather than talk about "beauty" make "The Contestants" the subject of your sentence.

Edited to add:

Also, "terms" is plural. You should ask, "Are there any more descriptive terms?

Thanks, Contrex for the reply 'Are there better terms?" It was a careless mistake. Anyway, thanks again for pointing it out.

By the way, I don't understand what Noddy is trying to tell me.

He means that describing female beauty as "beyond reproach" is inappropriate because reproaches are only deserved for avoidable actions or states, and the magnitude of a person's beauty is not under a their control.

The contestants are stunning. They may also be stunningly beautiful.

Beyond reproach is not suitable.

The contestants morals could be beyond reproach as could their upbringing.

If we assume beyond reproach means faultless it should fit, but it does not and I struggle to understand/explain why.

Reproach
1: an expression of rebuke or disapproval
2 : the act or action of reproaching or disapproving <was>
3 a : a cause or occasion of blame, discredit, or disgrace b : DISCREDIT, DISGRACE
4 obsolete : one subjected to censure or scorn

Beyond reproach (Theasaurus)
criticize, scold, upbraid, reprimand, berate, reprove, admonish, chide, censure, defame, disparage, condemn, reprehend, animadvert.

The cleanliness of a person's home or the neatness of their handwriting could be beyond reproach, but not their beauty.

Thanks, Contrex. If I remember correctly, this expression was used with regard to beauty. Is it really wrong?

My apologies to Dadpad. In a hurry, I missed reading his post.

We generally read about beauty contests, pageants, etc, in local newspapers, and it is a matter of convention that all the contestants are always very beautiful indeed. Therefore, conventional language of the most stilted kind is generally used, in fact "stunning" is practically de rigeur.

So "beyond reproach" is not actually "wrong", it's just clumsy and inappropriate.

"The beauty of the contestants is orange"

"The beauty of the contestants is squamous"

Now those are wrong!

So I had been misled by whoever wrote that expression.

Many thanks, Contrex.