exhilarating

adjective

ex·​hil·​a·​rat·​ing ig-ˈzi-lə-ˌrā-tiŋ 

: causing strong feelings of happy excitement and elation : thrilling

an exhilarating experience

… an exhilarating ride that allows participants to catch an aerial view like they've never seen before.

—Kathryn M. Roy

… I would like to convey the sense of flight as it was almost at the very beginning of itself, when everything about it was miraculous and dangerous and exhilarating.

—James Dickey

… an exhilarating career full of deals sealed at three-martini lunches.

—Andrea Cooper

exhilaratingly

ig-ˈzi-lə-ˌrā-tiŋ-lē 

adverb

an exhilaratingly funny performance

Synonyms of exhilarating

• exciting
• breathtaking
• thrilling
• interesting
• intriguing

Examples of exhilarating in a Sentence

no recording can capture the exhilarating feeling of being at a live rock concert

Recent Examples on the Web

What followed was often exhilarating and, from around season three onward, often just as exasperating. — Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 25 June 2026

But that beating-you-over-the-head quality is precisely what makes these tracks so exhilarating. — Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 25 June 2026

However exhilarating seasoned soccer fans might find some recent World Cup draws, newcomers to the sport might prove harder to convince. — Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 24 June 2026

Australia’s Nestory Irankunda notched one of the group stage’s most exhilarating goals in the opener. — Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 24 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1634, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for exhilarating

• accelerating
• accentuating
• accommodating
• accumulating
• adjudicating
• administrating
• affiliating
• agglutinating
• alienating
• alleviating
• amalgamating
• ameliorating