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Glite Dictionary
💡 To shine intellectually ✨ To sparkle
to scintillate

to scintillate

3 9.3
To be lively, clever, and very skillful in speech or art
  • verb
  • /ˈsɪntɪˌleɪt/
translation icon : brillar
  • The professor's lectures always scintillate with insights that inspire students to think critically.
  • scintillating conversation

Examples

  • Your rhetorical skills are, as always, scintillating.

    Blog text (6)

  • Whichever way you like it, I hope you'll find inspiration here to go off and have a scintillating conversation of your own.

    Blog text (27)

  • Really, Doctor, you positively scintillate.

    The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

  • If you missed it, I assure you it was scintillating.

    Blog text (30)

  • Is it that you crave scintillating conversation?

    Think Like a Man (2012)

  • Such scintillating conversation.

    Miss Potter (2006)

  • Scintillating, isn't he?

    Heroes (1977)

  • The blogger behind STFU Parents is going public (and, we can only hope, posting some scintillating Facebook updates).

    Blog text (6)

  • The guest list was carefully composed; the conversation, invariably scintillating, would range from an interesting new artist he had recently discovered to government plans for the construction of a giant hydroelectric plant, from the theories of Einstein to the ideas of Heidegger.

    Academic text (1992)

  • She found Joshua immensely attractive, and the excitement of arranging each secret rendezvous and flirting with the risks that attended them was scintillating.

    Fiction book (1990)

Synonyms

to dazzle
vsto scintillate
63 4.1

To amaze people with great skill, beauty, or clever ideas

describes lively inner brilliance or skill rather than causing strong external amazement
to sparkle
vsto scintillate
20 3.5

To be lively and show skill, charm, or energy

focuses more on energy and charm than on extreme technical virtuosity
to coruscate
vsto scintillate
  • Literature
9.9

To show great skill and lively energy

is broader, showing lively intellectual or artistic brightness beyond pure virtuosity

Antonyms

dull
182 1.3

Not interesting or lively

mediocre
109 4.8

Only average in quality and not very good

uninspired
14 4.0

Not having new or interesting ideas

How Brilliant

to dazzle
63 4.1
to shine
138 3.6
to scintillate
3 9.3
to sparkle
20 3.5

Surface Forms

scintillate infinitive
scintillated past
scintillated past participle
scintillating present participle
scintillates third person singular

Morphology

scintillate = scintill (opaque) = scintill + ate

The base 'scintill' is not a recognizable English word, so the derivation is opaque to learners.

Etymology

Scintillate comes from the Latin word scintilla, which means 'spark'. A helpful way to remember the non-literal meaning is to imagine a person 'giving off sparks' of bright ideas or skill, so to scintillate is to be lively and shine with cleverness or talent.