I guess beautiful, I feel like “beautiful” can be used to describe a person as a whole. For instance, a smile, personality, laughter, etc. “Gorgeous” I think can only pertains to someone’s looks.

Either way they are both compliments. And very nice to hear :)

Neither has any meaning unless the speaker says them genuinely.

Personally, I have a fondness for the word “beautiful” – but that’s only because the concept of “beauty” connotes something of import to me. People interpret words differently. There is no guarantee how they will respond to them.

Take being called “cute”. I know many men and women who hate being called cute and just as many who adore being called cute. It depends on the individual.

What @IBERnineD said. :)

I like beautiful. Beauty generally connotes a more permanent quality in my mind. Gorgeous is more accessorizing. Plus, gorgeous has more of a camp feel.

For me the word gorgeous is beautiful+.
Also i will use beautiful for people and for items (like paintings and music).
Gorgeous only for persons.

Aesthetically speaking I’d say beautiful sounds better. Gorgeous doesn’t even sound like a pretty word, and it has the word gorge in it, which also doesn’t sound attractive. Plus I agree with those that implied gorgeous sounds more shallow.

I get bored hearing just one all the time.

Because you’re gorgeous.

For me gorgeous is the better one. Gorgeous is so beautiful I can’t take my eyes off of you. It is beautiful beyond what I typically imagine beautiful to be. Beautiful does have a more delicate feel I would admit. I generally would not use the term gorgeous for a typical blond American type of look. It is saved for a person with more striking features.

I don’t really mind, they are both the same aren’t they?

From Dictionary.com

Beautiful
[byoo-tuh-fuhl]

Adjective
1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

Noun
4. the concept of beauty (usually prec. by the).
5. (used with a plural verb) beautiful things or people collectively (usually prec. by the): the good and the beautiful.
6. the ideal of beauty (usually prec. by the): to strive to attain the beautiful.

Interjection
7. wonderful; fantastic: You got two front-row seats? Beautiful!
8.extraordinary; incredible: used ironically: Your car broke down in the middle of the freeway? Beautiful!

Gorgeous
[gawr-juhs]

Adjective
1. splendid or sumptuous in appearance, coloring, etc.; magnificent: a gorgeous gown; a gorgeous sunset.
2.Informal . extremely good, enjoyable, or pleasant: I had a gorgeous time.

They’re both compliments. One isn’t really “better” than the other. In retrospect, they mean the same thing, basically.

Either could have “more meaning” depending on:
1. How the term is said or expressed by the user.
2. The user’s reason for using it.
3. The user’s vocabulary.

Having lived in several cities in America, I think certain regions of my country and certain groups tend to use the word gorgeous, while other don’t. NYC you will hear the word, here in Memphis, not so much.

When Barbra Streisand won the Academy Award in 1968 for best actress in FUNNY GIRL, she said, ” Hullo, gorgeous.”

“Hello, gorgeous!” was .. Streisand’s first comment to the Oscar statuette which she won for her performance in this biopic of entertainer Fanny Brice. This is also her first line in the film itself… source

@gailcalled Hullo, gorgeous!

They’re both pretty nice.
“Handsome woman” I can do without ;)

In my mind then beautiful is more encompassing, beyond just the physical while gorgeous to me is about the physical. If said to me genuinely then I’d like beautiful more but appreciate gorgeous thrown in now and then.

I like the sound of beautiful more than gorgeous. Perhaps because the guys that would call me gorgeous were a little creepy

Never having been the prettiest girl in the world, it’s not really something I’ve had to think about much. I prefer awesome because that covers all my awesomeness. :-) Though given a choice between beautiful and gorgeous I would say beautiful is better because gorgeous seems forced and perhaps not entirely honest, or possibly meeting only a single, narrow standard for attractiveness, while beautiful is something that means different things to different people and seems more honest somehow, and as @Neizvestnaya points out, the idea of beauty is more encompassing and involves things about you that are deeper, maybe like someone who may simply have an unbelievable smile that lights up the whole room. That’s about more than just the physical aspect of attractiveness. I guess this really just personal for me. I guess it’s a matter of my believing that certain men have and could find me beautiful, but I would not believe a man who told me I was gorgeous, because I’m not.

I’ll take gorgeous in a pinch, because a compliment is a compliment, but I’d rather be considered beautiful.

I think @gailcalled reinforced my point about NY with her Streisand example. Maybe it is a Jewish thing too? Although, I have non-Jewish friends from NY who use gorgeous, but they also use schmata and kinahora.

I bet you are both gorgeous as well as beautiful. Take both as a compliment.
It depends on who is saying it, how they say it, and how often they use the two words. I think you should just accept both as a nice compliment and be happy (:

Stunning is also nice to hear.

Here’s a project:

Do a google image search for “beautiful”

then

Google image search “gorgeous”

Compare

It is better to be gorgeous, people who are not greatly physically attractive are called beautiful because of their personality. I have never seen anyone who might have had a great personality every being referred to as gorgeous. Gorgeous lends more to being stunning and very attractive where beautiful can mean that but also merely being uncannily nice or a good soul.