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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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.
Messi is enjoying a scintillating start to the tournament as Argentina defend their title.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 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
His performance against Argentina in the 2022 final alone - a hat-trick that included a scintillating volley - was worthy of winning the game's biggest prize for a second time.
From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026
"It's nearly invisible to the naked eye but our instruments give rise to a vision of swaths of scintillating corona glowing as thunderstorms pass overhead," McFarland said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 21, 2026
But the brilliance defeated him: there it was inside his eyes, twisting and scintillating like a...
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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.
