bright implies emitting or reflecting a high degree of light.
brilliant implies intense often sparkling brightness.
radiant stresses the emission or seeming emission of rays of light.
luminous implies emission of steady, suffused, glowing light by reflection or in surrounding darkness.
lustrous stresses an even, rich light from a surface that reflects brightly without glittering.
Examples of brilliant in a Sentence
Adjective
a brilliant star in the sky
a store decorated in brilliant colors
He pitched a brilliant game.
She gave a brilliant performance.
She has a brilliant mind. Noun
the diamond cutter set out an array of brilliants to show the various ways the diamond could be cut
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Robinson shoved open the door four years before Mays played his first game for the New York Giants, but the landscape remained treacherous for those brilliant ballplayers who followed him through.—Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 21 June 2024 There are some brilliant bits of staging as Jelly Roll encounters the only white characters in the show — played by the Black ensemble using masks or puppetry — who ensure that a Black genius won’t get too uppity.—Chris Willman, Variety, 21 June 2024 But Starmer has been a brilliant strategist in his positioning of the Labour Party.—Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post, 21 June 2024 Someone made the brilliant observation that getting queerbaited by Disney or Marvel would be like losing to a dog at chess.—Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 21 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for brilliant
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'brilliant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Adjective
French brillant, present participle of briller to shine, from Italian brillare
Noun
borrowed from French brillant, noun derivative of brillantbrilliant entry 1
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