excitement
Americannoun
-
excitements
plural
-
an excited state or condition.
- Synonyms:
- ado, commotion, perturbation
- Antonyms:
- serenity
-
something that excites.
noun
-
the state of being excited
-
a person or thing that excites; stimulation or thrill
Synonym Usage
See agitation.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of excitement
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English excitament, “encouragement,” from Medieval Latin excitāmentum; excite + -ment
Explanation
Excitement is a feeling or situation full of activity, joy, exhilaration, or upheaval. One thing about excitement — it sure isn't boring. There are a few types of excitement, but they're all exciting — they get your attention. If you can't wait for your birthday, you're feeling a happy kind of excitement. If everyone in class is screaming and throwing things, the teacher might ask, "What's all the excitement about?" A sleeping dog is resting — no excitement there. But a dog that’s jumping, barking, and running in circles when his owner comes home is feeling and causing a lot of excitement.
Vocabulary lists containing excitement
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 3
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-ment
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"Ithaka" by C.P. Cavafy
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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.
See Examples For:
Amid all the adrenaline and excitement, that was survival.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
No, the Strokes did not save rock ’n’ roll, but the excitement of “Is This It,” fueled by a combination of tense energy and nonchalance, has outlived the initial hype that surrounded its release.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
"There was such excitement around the whole of Whitley Bay - every shop had things in the windows, the blue and white stripes," says one of the volunteers, Jenn Robinson.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Leo's visit has stirred excitement among the faithful in the secular nation with deep Catholic roots.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
There were no smiles of excitement among them, only a dull amazement.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
In the memoir, Ms. Dunham traces the struggles of her adult life—fame, illness, addiction—with touching emphasis on the early tremulous excitements of becoming well-known: the affirmation, the freebies, the invitations to glittering events.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
They are “something like but unlike critical interest, which has its own excitements but remains too often at the level of knowledge, analysis, conclusions, at worst the total boredom of having opinions.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2023
Still, the era’s ecstasies are recaptured here by Janis’s own real-time excitements.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2019
We texted, sent each other selfies, and went back and forth about the banal particulars and little excitements of our days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2019
He sat propped against a tree, watching the red sentries passing to and fro in the firelight, hearing their quiet passwords and thinking about the excitements of the day.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
