Word.ws English Dictionary

brilliant

Syllables: bril·liant/ˈbɹɪl.jənt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈbɹɪ(l)jənt/

brilliant adjective: shining brightly.

Adjective

brilliant (comparative more brilliant, superlative most brilliant)

  1. Shining brightly.
    • the brilliant lights along the promenade
    Synonyms:
    glittering, shining
  2. Both bright and saturated.
    • butterflies with brilliant blue wings
  3. Having a sharp, clear tone.
  4. Of surpassing excellence; magnificent.
    • The actor's performance in the play was simply brilliant.
    • "Thing is," Anahita resumed, and then, faltering, "Mean to say, well, we just think it's great." — "You, she means," Mishal corrected. "We think you're, you know." — "Brilliant," Anahita said and dazzled the bewildered Chamcha with a smile. "Magic. You know. Extreme."1988, Salman Rushdie, chapter V, in The Satanic Verses, page 268
  5. Highly intelligent.
    • She is a brilliant scientist.
    Synonyms:
    brainy, ingenious
  6. (UK) Great, wonderful.
    • https://youtu.be/aoag03mSuXQ?t=5139s
      He absolutely could have told us to get lost, and didn't. What a brilliant guy!

Noun

brilliant (countable and uncountable, plural brilliants)

  1. A finely cut gemstone, especially a diamond, cut in a particular form with numerous facets so as to maximize light return through the top (called "table") of the stone.
    • This snuffbox — on the hinge see brilliants shine.1717, Alexander Pope, The Basset-Table
    • On the one, a plain massive band which matched the collar; on the other, a serpent; the tail reached nearly to the elbow, and the head rose a little from the wrist; the tongue of a ruby, the eyes of large brilliants.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 257
  2. (dated, uncountable) The size of type between excelsior and diamond, standardized as 4-point.
  3. Most hummingbird species of the genus Heliodoxa.
  4. A kind of cotton goods, figured on the weaving.

Verb

brilliant (third-person singular simple present brilliants, present participle brillianting, simple past and past participle brillianted)

  1. (transitive) To cut (a diamond) with many facets, to make it into a brilliant.
    • In short, the diamond owed more to being brillianted and polished, and well set, than to any intrinsic worth or solidity.1851, The Western Literary Messenger, page 256

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Brilliant

Brilliant

  1. An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Wells, Jefferson County, United States.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Brilliant

Brilliant

  1. A town in Marion County, Alabama, United States.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Brilliant

Brilliant

  1. A settlement in southeastern British Columbia, Canada.

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Brilliant

Brilliant

  1. An unincorporated community in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States.

brilliant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

brilliant in Hindi

shining brightly
चमकीला camkīlā
of a colour: both light and saturated
चमकीला camkīlā
of surpassing excellence
प्रतिभाशाली pratibhāśālī, प्रतिभावान pratibhāvān
highly intelligent
मेधावी medhāvī

brilliant in Tamil

சிறப்புவாய்ந்த, அறிவார்ந்த, ஒளிமயமான, ஒளிமிக்க, மின்னுகிற, சுடர்விடுகின்ற

brilliant in Urdu

بھڑک دار, چمکیلا, روشن, ذہین

brilliant in Bengali

brilliant
দারুণ darun, উমদা umoda
brilliant, excellent
অপূর্ব ôpurbô
More languagesFewer languages
brilliant in Telugu
మిసిమి misimi
brilliant in Malayalam
ഉജ്ജ്വലം ujjvalaṁ
brilliant in Kannada
ಕೂರರಿವಿನ, ಹೊಳೆಯುವ, ಪ್ರಕಾಶಮಾನ, ಕಾಂತಿಯುತ
brilliant in Punjabi
وَدّھِیا vaddhīyā
brilliant in Gujarati
લાલચોળ lālcoḷ
brilliant in Sanskrit
वसन्त vasantá, शोभन śobhaná, त्वेष tveṣá, तेजस्विन् tejasvín
brilliant in Arabic
باهِر bāhir
brilliant in Malay
berlian
brilliant in Indonesian
brilian, berlian
brilliant in Persian
لیان liyân, درخشان deraxšân, تابان tâbân, برلیان brelyân
brilliant in Vietnamese
thiên tài

Examples of brilliant in a sentence

  • Clever touches like this are what make her such a brilliant writer.
  • A brilliant dawn greeted her eyes as she looked out of the window.
  • He positioned his top batsman and brilliant catcher at second slip.

All 40 example sentences with brilliant

Synonyms of brilliant

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of brilliant

Forms of brilliant

Adjective
comparativemore brilliant
superlativemost brilliant
Noun
pluralbrilliants
Verb
third-person singular presentbrilliants
present participlebrillianting
past participlebrillianted
pastbrillianted

Origin of brilliant

Borrowed from French brillant (late 17th century), present participle of the verb briller, from Italian brillare, possibly from Latin berillus, beryllus (“a beryl, gem, eyeglass”), from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος (bḗrullos, “beryl”). By surface analysis, French brill(er) + -i- + -ant.

Originally known as Philipsburgh. It changed its name after the Brilliant Glass Company was established and built a glass factory in the town.

Named after the Brilliant Coal Company.

Words formed from brilliant

Phrases with brilliant

Questions about brilliant

What does brilliant mean?
Brilliant means shining brightly.
What is brilliant in Hindi?
Brilliant in Hindi is चमकीला (camkīlā), प्रतिभाशाली (pratibhāśālī), प्रतिभावान (pratibhāvān). See Brilliant meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is brilliant?
Brilliant can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brilliant?
Brilliant is pronounced /ˈbɹɪl.jənt/.

Words near brilliant in the dictionary

  1. brilliances
  2. brilliancies
  3. brilliancy
  4. brilliandeer
  5. brilliandeers
  6. brilliant
  7. brilliant green
  8. brilliant rummynose tetra
  9. brilliant rummynose tetras
  10. brillianted
  11. brilliantine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brilliant (page history and authors); Brilliant (page history and authors); brilliant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brilliant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অপূর্ব (Bengali) (page history and authors); మిసిమి (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഉജ്ജ്വലം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); brilliant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); લાલચોળ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); तेजस्विन् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-brilliant.ogg.

Cite this entry: “brilliant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brilliant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.