- 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.
A tiny breath of quiet on what has been an exhilarating journey through a tumultuous time for our industry.
From BBC • Nov. 21, 2023
His "exhilarating journey", which began at the 2004 NFL draft, ended just under a fortnight ago with a Wild Card Round play-off defeat to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
From BBC • Jan. 27, 2022
First is Jay Griffiths’ untameable Wild: An Elemental Journey, an exhilarating journey that pleads for the preservation of wilderness.
From The Guardian • Apr. 14, 2020
It is a strange and exhilarating journey, unlike anything I have recently encountered.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 1, 2014
The music explodes into life with a horn sounding a fanfare to the new century, and weaves an exhilarating journey that harks back to Brahms, yet looks forward almost to Boulez.
From The Guardian • Nov. 29, 2012
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.