- present participle of exhilarate.
exhilarating
Britishadjective
Other Word 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.
With Esa-Pekka Salonen as this year’s music director, the festival saw an exhilarating return to its essence.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
The electricity being generated from Madison Square Garden to my TV during Game 4 was exhilarating!
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2026
Then, they played some exhilarating cricket, the best of the Bazball era.
From BBC • Jun. 3, 2026
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
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.
