ebullient

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adjective ebul·lient \i-ˈbu̇l-yənt, -ˈbəl-\

Definition of ebullient

1 : boiling, agitated
2 : characterized by ebullience : having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm ebullient performers

ebulliently

adverb

See ebullient defined for English-language learners

ebullient was our Word of the Day on 10/31/2015. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of ebullient from the Web

In writer-director Terence Davies' film, Ehle plays Vinnie, the ebullient sister of poet Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon).

— michael phillips, chicagotribune.com, "Jennifer Ehle: A career in delicate balance", 26 May 2017
Konstantin Anisimov, a burly, dark-haired, ebullient man, is Anisimova’s primary coach.

— christopher clarey, New York Times, "Amanda Anisimova, 15, Is Ready for Her Grand Slam Debut", 25 May 2017
If so many schools hadn’t celebrated Obama’s two elections with rallies, songs of homage and ebullient videos.

— WSJ, "Notable & Quotable: Teachers and Trump", 16 Nov. 2016
Gary Cameron / Reuters MIAMI—Enrique Sepulveda, an ebullient second-year student at the kaleidoscopically diverse Miami Dade College here, usually thinks of himself as a Republican.

— ronald brownstein, The Atlantic, "How Trump Pushed Millennials Out of the Republican Party", 3 Nov. 2016
That, in fact, is a pretty good description of Wolfe’s aim with Shuffle—to reach into the past and bring back to life the ebullient spirit of a groundbreaking hit musical.

— anton corbijn, Vogue, "Tap-Dancing Legend Savion Glover Reanimates the Game-Changing Broadway Musical Shuffle Along", 28 Apr. 2016
Newton, 26, an ebullient, intelligent, gifted quarterback, decided to act in his moment of truth like a 13-year-old.

— michael powell, New York Times, "Cam Newton Defends Postgame Behavior at Super Bowl FEB. 9, 2016", 8 Feb. 2016
That's just the lad's skittish modesty, and even that rings ebullient, not false.

— scott raab, Esquire, "Jimmy Fallon Does Not Have to Cater to Anyone", 17 Nov. 2015
His new quintet features the ebullient trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

— david sanborn, The New Yorker, "David Sanborn", 20 Sep. 1925

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'ebullient'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the adjective ebullient derives from the Latin verb ebullire, which means "to bubble out." (The stem bullire is an ancestor of our word boil and derives from bulla, the Latin word for "bubble.") In its earliest known uses in English in the late 1500s, ebullient was used in the sense of "boiling" or "bubbling" that might have described a pot simmering on the stove. Only later did the word's meaning broaden to encompass emotional agitation (particularly of the exuberant kind) in addition to the tempestuous roiling of a boiling liquid.