- present participle of glare.
glaring
Americanadjective
-
shining with or reflecting a harshly bright or brilliant light.
- Synonyms:
- blinding
-
very conspicuous or obvious; flagrant.
several glaring errors in spelling.
-
staring in a fiercely or angrily piercing manner.
-
excessively showy or bright; garish.
adjective
-
conspicuous
a glaring omission
-
dazzling or garish
Synonym Usage
See flagrant.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of glaring
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English: see origin at glare 1, -ing 2
Explanation
Whether it's a bright light or a fault, glaring things are obvious. You just can't miss them. Something glaring is obvious to everyone. Sometimes, there's a glaring light that's in your eyes, such as the glaring beams of the sun. Other times, it could be a glaring fault. For example, if you're a very short basketball player, your height is something everyone knows you have to overcome: it's a glaring problem for that sport. Things that are glaring in this way are almost always bad: there aren't any glaring ice cream cones or puppies. You can't avoid looking at things that are glaring, but you wish you could.
Vocabulary lists containing glaring
Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 3
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ACT Vocabulary List
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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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.
In this series, he has two hits and two strikeouts in eight at-bats, and his inability to refrain from swinging at pitches outside the strike zone has become a glaring weakness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Everton could point to the fact Balogun took a personal decision they could not reverse, but the bigger question is why they took until the final day of the window to address glaring long-term issues?
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Even before the summer rush, nerves were on edge; a January 4 breakdown in the communication system linking air traffic controllers and aircraft had laid bare a glaring weakness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
There’s a glaring issue in the title of “Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
I picture myself sitting in class, all the kids from cooking club glaring knives at me.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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.
