thrilling

adjective

thrill·​ing ˈthri-liŋ 

: causing a feeling of great excitement or happiness

a thrilling discovery

a thrilling performance

… flashes into the end zone to give the Rams the winning touchdown in the most thrilling Super Bowl finish ever.

—Rick Reilly

thrillingly

ˈthri-liŋ-lē 

adverb

Who, in fact, are the good guys and who are the bad guys in the dramas that unfold here so thrillingly?

—Marie Winn

… this is a powerful and thrillingly strange movie …

—Terrence Rafferty

Synonyms of thrilling

• exciting
• breathtaking
• interesting
• intriguing

Examples of thrilling in a Sentence

a thrilling adventure movie

Recent Examples on the Web

All the while, Oh and Comer’s slow dance of antagonism crossed with infatuation is some of the most thrilling acting in recent television memory. —Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Mar. 2026

However, Paveletzke missed a floater with two seconds left that sent the game to a thrilling overtime. —Brendan Marks, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2026

Argentina won a penalty shootout against France after Messi scored twice and Kylian Mbappé got a hat track in a thrilling 3-3 draw. —ABC News, 5 Mar. 2026

This thrilling movie takes you on a wild adventure to a remote island where scientists have brought dinosaurs back from extinction, including a T-Rex. —Karen Cicero, Parents, 5 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1768, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for thrilling

• billing
• chilling
• drilling
• filling
• grilling
• killing
• milling
• pilling
• rilling
• schilling
• shilling
• skilling