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

But luckily, the rest of women’s soccer didn’t get the memo, because the last few weekends of domestic and international games have been nothing short of exhilarating. — Emily Olsen, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2026

Sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers and watching Pete-Crow Armstrong outduel Shohei Ohtani in their MVP showdown seemed like the perfect way to end an exhilarating homestand for the Chicago Cubs. — Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 7 Aug. 2026

And what is perhaps most frightening, in those despondent moments that inevitably follow the exhilarating rush, is the realization that this enveloping abyss retains the imprint of our actions. — Jan Tumlir, Artforum, 5 Aug. 2026

Seeing a shark underwater when scuba diving is an exhilarating moment. — Kathleen Wong, USA Today, 26 July 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