brilliant has definitions from the field of color
1
[ adjective ] of surpassing excellence

Synonyms

superb

Examples

"a brilliant performance" "a superb actor"

Used in print

(The Dallas Morning News,...)

Tailback James_Saxton already has surpassed his rushing total for his brilliant sophomore season , when he netted 271 yards on 55 carries ; he now has 273 yards in 22 tries during three games .

(Chicago Daily Tribune...)

It is truly odd and ironic that the most handsome and impressive film yet made from Miguel_de_Cervantes ' `` Don_Quixote '' is the brilliant Russian spectacle , done in wide_screen and color , which opened yesterday at the Fifty-fifth_Street and Sixty-eighth_Street_Playhouses .

Related terms

superior

2
[ adjective ] having or marked by unusual and impressive intelligence

Examples

"some men dislike brainy women" "a brilliant mind" "a brilliant solution to the problem"

Used in print

(Frank Getlein and Harold C. Gardiner, S.J., Movies,...)

If the change , at_first_sight , seems minor , we may recall that it took the Italian painters about two hundred years to make an analogous change , and the Italian painters , by universal consent , were the most brilliant group of geniuses any art has seen .

(J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)

Indeed , it is even surprising in the Canon of Christ_Church and Regius_Professor of Ecclesiastical History , who fathered this most peculiar view , and in the brilliant Professor of Medieval and Renaissance_English at Cambridge , who inherited it and is now its most eminent proponent .

(Guy Bolton, The Olympians....)

Now , under the impact of his wife 's disclosures , he was brought suddenly to the realization that there was a limit to tolerance , however brilliant , however far-famed the offender might be .

Related terms

intelligent

3
[ adjective ] full of light; shining intensely

Examples

"a brilliant star" "brilliant chandeliers"

Used in print

(A. N. Nagaraj and L. M. Black, "Localization of...)

The autofluorescence from the walls of the xylem cells was particularly brilliant .

Related terms

bright

4
[ adjective ] (color) having striking color

Synonyms

bright vivid

Examples

"bright greens" "brilliant tapestries" "a bird with vivid plumage"

Related terms

colorful

5
[ adjective ] characterized by or attended with brilliance or grandeur

Examples

"the brilliant court life at Versailles" "a glorious work of art" "magnificent cathedrals" "the splendid coronation ceremony"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

in his motherland ; in the spacious hunting_grounds of `` Uncle_Sam '' ; in the exciting salons of his lovely , brilliant Paris - mistress of gaiety - excess and abandon - world theatre of new found freedoms in tone , color , dance , design , and thought .

Related terms

impressive

6
[ adjective ] clear and sharp and ringing

Synonyms

bright

Examples

"the bright sound of the trumpet section" "the brilliant sound of the trumpets"

Used in print

(The Christian Science Monitor,...)

The penalty for this is noticeable in the big , bold , brilliant , but brassy piano sounds in Melody_and_Percussion_for_Two_Pianos ( SP 44007 ) .

Related terms

reverberant

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