- 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.
The glaring light is practically a character in “Sisters of the Midnight Sun,” Ms. Stevens’s compelling account of a disturbing murder case she worked on in the early 1990s.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 10, 2026
“The most glaring dynamic is the leaders/laggards rotation that we’re currently seeing as we flip the calendar,” Favuzza wrote.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 1, 2026
The United States inherited universal birthright citizenship from England and maintained it after the Revolution, with the glaring exception of slavery.
From Slate • Jun. 30, 2026
It adds "the failures were glaring... and magnified in our angry, divided world".
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2026
She bounds up the stairs, two at a time, and sees me and Tim and the way Tim is kind of glaring at me.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
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.
