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brilliant

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹɪl.jənt/

The English word “brilliant” has 11 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Shining brightly.
  2. Both bright and saturated.
  3. Having a sharp, clear tone.
  4. Of surpassing excellence; magnificent.
  5. Highly intelligent.
  6. Great, wonderful.

noun

  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.
  2. 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

  1. To cut (a diamond) with many facets, to make it into a brilliant.

Etymology

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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.