scintillating
Americanadjective
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animated; vivacious; effervescent.
a scintillating personality.
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witty; brilliantly clever.
a scintillating conversationalist;
a play full of scintillating dialogue.
adjective
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sparkling; twinkling
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animated or brilliant
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scintillating
First recorded in 1880–85; scintillat(e) + -ing 1
Explanation
Something scintillating is flashing briefly and sharply with light. Scintillating conversations are smart and captivating. To be scintillating is to be sharp. Things that are scintillating are exciting: they grab your attention with sparkles, flashes of light, or sheer brilliance. Most often, we talk about scintillating conversations and speakers. If you say someone is scintillating, then they are clever — people want to listen to them. This is a word often used sarcastically. If someone is boring, you might say "Well, that was scintillating," while rolling your eyes.
Vocabulary lists containing scintillating
"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Positive Words to Describe a Person
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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.
Probably most impressive, a category closely followed by economists known as real final sales rose at a scintillating 3.9% annual pace — the highest reading in more than three years.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Maintaining a scintillating level, Sinner held off Djokovic to hold for a 3-1 lead before winning eight unanswered points across his final two service games.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Enter “Dad Brain,” a scintillating if uneven book by Darby Saxbe, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California and an expert on fatherhood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Iraola, therefore, will have been thrilled to see Isak showing scintillating form of old as he was instrumental as Sweden thrashed Tunisia 5-1 in Monterrey.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
"Is this the kind of scintillating conversation we're going to have now that we don't have any secrets?"
From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell
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.
