exhilarating
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Explanation
Something exhilarating is so exciting it makes you a little giddy. "Snowboarding that black-diamond trail was exhilarating!" Zipping through the snow is certainly exhilarating, but ski bunnies and snowboarders might not choose this fancy adjective first. They might just yell, "Woohoo!" It's always been a fun-loving word; its Latin roots mean "gladden, cheer." A ride on a glass elevator with a cute vampire could be exhilarating, and so could a surprise party, or a ride on an old roller coaster. It can be so refreshing, you can't exhale after something exhilarating happens.
Vocabulary lists containing exhilarating
The Giver
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 2
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The Joy Luck Club
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Alice and Steve” also required her to do a few stunts in a series of intense scenes toward the end of the series, which Walker found exhilarating and worrisome.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
In an exhilarating US Women's Open at Riviera Country Club, Hull posted a record-equalling weekend charge while finishing a shot shy of Nelly Korda's winning total.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
Yet, despite this occasional datedness, “Love and Death in the American Novel” remains wonderfully alive, being iconoclastic, polemical, exhilarating and, not least, fun to read.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
And as is his talent, departing vision steward Anderson ties it up in a bow, with a nod to ”our terrifying and exhilarating future.”
From Slate • May 8, 2026
On the one hand, it was exhilarating to hear a market insider say what he thought to be true; on the other, if the market became self-aware, its madness couldn’t last long.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
