glittering

adjective

glit·​ter·​ing ˈgli-tə-riŋ 

1

a

: shining with many bright points of light

Every few days a little glittering aeroplane appeared in the sky among the clouds and the circling hawks.

—Doris Lessing

And where the water had been trickling over and spurting through the dam there was now a glittering wall of icicles …

—C. S. Lewis

b

: shining with strong emotion

… after being misdirected almost consistently, she goes out in glory, with glittering eyes and a lewd smile.

—Pauline Kael

2

: brilliantly or showily impressive : dazzling

a glittering career

… the company today caters a glittering array of premiere social and corporate galas, from Poughkeepsie to Palm Beach.

—Robert Masello

also : superficially attractive or exciting

… they left behind the glittering social life of Orlando …

—Douglas Frantz et al.

glitteringly

ˈgli-tə-riŋ-lē 

adverb

His libretto is very bare, a skeleton of short, clear phrases on to which he has grafted slivers of music glitteringly alive thanks to his fine ear for sound.

—Richard Fairman

Examples of glittering in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Six room types offer options for a glittering marina and pool or lush mangrove view, open-air showers, and ADA accessibility. —Katherine Alex Beaven, Travel + Leisure, 11 Apr. 2024

The inaugural awards ceremony was held in London in October 2021, followed by a glittering second cycle in Boston late last year. —Stephanie Petit, Peoplemag, 30 July 2023

Carpenter, 24, dressed to impress for the event, wearing a black Tory Burch gown featuring a crocodile skin-style bodice and sheer glittering skirt. —Becca Longmire, Peoplemag, 11 Mar. 2024

Scarlett Lee did just that with an audition on American Idol, for a glittering result. —Lars Brandle, Billboard, 4 Mar. 2024

The longest runways and most glittering celebrities can’t fill that void. —Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 25 Feb. 2024

Swift channeled a mirrorball in a glittering sequin Balmain gown with Anita Ko jewels and Giuseppe Zanotti heels. —Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 1 Dec. 2023

In the decades after the 1949 establishment of the People’s Republic of China, when the mainland was mired in poverty, hundreds of thousands of Chinese are estimated to have risked their lives to reach the glittering shores of what was then a British colony. —Chris Lau, CNN, 24 Feb. 2024

Four years after a cloud of particles from deep space cast a glittering purple glow over Earth’s night sky, the Czech government has been the first to step up and launch an investigatory mission, with South Korea nipping at their heels. —David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a