adjective
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glossy or polished; bright
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(of clothes or material) worn to a smooth and glossy state, as by continual rubbing
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of shiny
Explanation
Shiny describes something with a smooth, glossy surface. If you want to see your reflection in the glass table, you'll have to polish it to keep it shiny. Something shiny has a shine, a brightness that comes from reflecting light. Are you into shiny new cars, or shiny diamonds? Or do you like shiny, happy people? Good synonyms are lustrous, sheeny and glossy.
Vocabulary lists containing shiny
Lyrics from "Umbrella" by Rihanna
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"A Suitcase of Seaweed" and "Immigrants Today"
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Let There Be Light: Synonyms for "Bright"
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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.
See Examples For:
But it is Philippa Northeast as Sybylla who is the shiny thing from which we cannot avert our eyes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
It gives us a shiny number that has the air of “science” and promises that if you improve this, something good will happen.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
It helps that Early’s vision of our media-steeped contemporary lives sees through the shiny, digital facade.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
The impact of that stance could be profound, way beyond some admirably shiny No 10 signs emblazoned all over one floor of a government building in Manchester.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
“A red locomotive, moving fast along shiny new tracks. And it blows a trail of smoke behind it? Like a man running after the omnibus while clutching a lit cigar?”
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Ormat’s market cap is modest compared with shinier energy upstarts, at around $8 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 23, 2026
The original’s Cylons were the show’s answer to George Lucas’ stormtroopers in “Star Wars,” only shinier, with sinister red lights roving back and forth where their eyes should be.
From Salon ● May 5, 2026
Gold and silver are physical stores of value that investors can view as a hedge against the U.S. dollar, and both metals have grown shinier as the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cuts have weakened the dollar.
From Barron's ● Dec. 29, 2025
Ever shivered your way through an icy shower just for the sake of shinier hair?
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025
Farther off, the shinier Luna Park cast its orange haze into the dark sky.
From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older
Today, these centres are the shiniest parts of India's red-hot economy but not everyone has been able to enjoy the boom times as opportunities remain uneven.
From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026
Back then, he walked into a humming, world championship–caliber operation, where everything had been optimized to the slickest, shiniest possible standards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
He travelled to matches at home and abroad, from the grassroots to the shiniest showcases.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2024
The shiniest of them is deGrom, the 34-year-old right-hander with a lively 99-mph fastball and 93-mph wipeout slider who signed a five-year, $185-million deal in December.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
The beautiful woman who cleaned the ladies’ toilet was Ghanaian, about his age, with the shiniest dark skin he had ever seen.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
