brilliant

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“
Kirsten Gillibrand's friends call her brilliant -- her critics expedient.

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Definitions (29)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. adjective Full of light; shining. See Synonyms at bright.
  2. adjective Relating to or being a hue that has a combination of high lightness and strong saturation.
  3. adjective Sharp and clear in tone.
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Examples (50)

  • But he said dynamically brilliant, which is the letters d and b . —  Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
  • Then it would appear--brilliant, glowing with an uncanny light The secret message was Go to New Orleans at once and get in touch with me through the lumber company of Danielsen ; Haas Doc did not sign it. —  003 - Quest of the Spider
  • His exertions had been intermittent, and he was chiefly known as a brilliant member of fashionable society, a peculiar favorite with women, and remarkable for his abstinence from the coarse debauchery which disgraced his patrician contemporaries. —  Caesar: A Sketch
  • I'm not saying that this edit was brilliant, the final word, etc etc, but I am saying that I modifed my modest contribution in response to the criticism of the first version. —  Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]
  • Drink for a link policy - brilliant, at a recent event in Cape Town, I told all the bloggerati that if I'm buying drinks, they're giving backlinks! —  Muti
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bright ·  new ·  vivid ·  clever
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French brillant, present participle of briller, to shine, from Italian brillare, perhaps from brillo, beryl, from Latin bēryllus; see beryl.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French brillant (English -lli- = -ly-, representing the former sound of F. -ll-), present participle of briller = Provencal Spanish brillar = Portuguese brilhar = Italian brillare, glitter, sparkle, from Middle Latin as if *berillare, sparkle like a beryl or other precious stone, from Latin berillus, beryllus, a beryl, gem, eyeglass; cf. Italian dial. brill, a beryl, Middle Latin brillum, an eyeglass, later G. brille, Dutch bril, spectacles: see beryl.
 

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/ˈbrɪlyənt/
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