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Scintillating

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(pronounced sin-tl-ay-ting or sin-tuh-lay-ting)  adjective

Definition

sparkling and radiant; strikingly and excitingly animated, clever, stimulating, or witty; brilliantly intellectual.

Other Forms

Scintillate  (pronounced sin-tl-ayt or sin-tuh-layt)  verb

Main Example

• A thought provoking op-ed piece by Peggy Noonan in the Saturday, July 17, edition of The Wall Street Journal laments the absence of wise and highly experienced people from the Western world's political leadership scene, and suggests that for the past two decades there has been too heavy a reliance on young and scintillating personalities. To make her point, Noonan informs us that the young President Kennedy used to seek the advice and counsel of the then aging British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan.

Workplace Examples

• Just had lunch with Mark. He was witty, as usual. You know, I don't think that anyone else here could engage in such scintillating conversation.
• Last Friday's happy hour was a pretty tame affair, thanks to the always scintillating Valerie being on vacation.

Other Examples

• this author, a devout fan of "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser," which ran on PBS for over a quarter of a century, telling someone: "I seriously doubt I'll ever see another TV personality who can match the late Rukeyser's scintillating wit."
• "Firing Line"--another weekly TV program of long-ago which scintillated, thanks to the intellectual brilliance of host William F. Buckley, and which has no equal today
• just before the start of what is sure to be a boring presentation, one person in the audience asking the person next to him softly with his voice dripping with sarcasm, "You ready for a scintillating half-hour?"
• several of the matches during the recently concluded World Cup in South Africa providing a scintillating display of soccer; a movie whose dialogue is inspiring and scintillating
• during a Sunday morning talk show, a scintillating debate between two Republican senators on whether or not to use embryonic stem cells in research to help fight incurable diseases; a scintillating performance by the Paul Taylor Dance Company

© 2010 V.J. Singal
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