- present participle of exhilarate.
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.
After the choir won the pubic vote in the semi-final on 23 May, Ben Chick, a farmer based in Sixpenny Handley, Dorset, said performing that day "was the most exhilarating experience".
From BBC • May 31, 2026
The soaring quality of the orchestra and the delectable company of voices pay exhilarating homage to a singular artist, who seems right at home at the Pantages.
From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 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
The hand-size baby chickens were most exhilarating to Maha.
From "Tasting the Sky" by Ibtisam Barakat
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.
