So many words for seemingly the same thing

Beautiful, pretty, cute, why do we have so many words for...the same thing?

Well it is the same thing, right?

Or is there a difference? Is there actually a difference?

I don't know how hard it would be to analyze.

Beautiful- overall high praise, something worthy, praise, something worth working towards/living up to. Synonym of amazing.

Pretty- like beautiful, but less serious. Or when somebody is scared to say more, scared of the implications of something more serious.

Cute- Even less serious. I think of cute fuzzy animals like a duck. Or little children. Babies. Something you call when you're less serious or don't want the implications left too wide. What you call your middle school crush (lol).

So, after analysis, it seems that most of the difference is attributed to level of seriousness, scared-ness, and wishing of implications, things left unsaid.

Where would gorgeous fit in? I think, depending on the situation, it could be either more serious than cute or pretty (can also be less than pretty).

But I guess I'm also curious if different words are used because of different perceptions of people.

cute- something naive and innocent, or just admirable, like they got their style figured out or something. Therefore, could be applied to more than just looks.

pretty- mostly applied to looks

beautiful- anything could be beautiful, like a table you constructed.

gorgeous- kind-of like "hot"? Admirable, although I guess all of these can be admirable, just on different things.

For guys, what would be the equivalent? cute, handsome? Pretty, beautiful, and gorgeous can be used too. I think the words have the same kind of uses.

Related posts:

Naive, Innocence

These words were mentioned so it reminded me of this blog post. Preview: naive and innocence are not so bad...but can be bad...depends on how you see it...

Admirable