Word of the Day
: January 25, 2026resplendent
playWhat It Means
Resplendent is a literary word used to describe someone or something as very bright and attractive.
// She looked resplendent in her green evening gown.
resplendent in Context
“Her box braids were tied in a top bun that poked out of her green and gold headscarf... . Pretty as the braids were, he quietly missed the natural hair they protected. When unbound, her hair was a resplendent halo of vitality. But he knew the halo required a complex, labor-intensive morning and night routine for which she had lost patience.” — Karim Dimechkie, The Uproar: A Novel, 2025
Did You Know?
Resplendent shares a root with splendid (meaning, among other things, “shining” or “brilliant”), splendent (“shining” or “glossy”), and splendor (“brightness” or “luster”). Each of these glowing terms gets its shine from the Latin verb splendēre (“to shine”). In the case of resplendent, the prefix re- added to splendēre formed the Latin resplendēre, meaning “to shine back.” Splendent, splendor, and resplendent were first used in English during the 15th century, but splendid didn’t light up our language until almost 200 years later; its earliest known use dates from the early 1600s.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
Fill in the blanks to complete a word meaning “marked by great beauty or splendor”: g _ _ r i _ _ s.
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