Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Shining brilliantly; radiant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Shining; very bright; dazzling.
  • In heraldry, having rays, as a star or sun.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Exquisitely bright; shining; dazzling; effulgent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Shining brilliantly; radiant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shining intensely

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin fulgēns, fulgent-, present participle of fulgēre, to flash, shine; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Latin fulgens.

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Examples

  • These from the scabrous canvas of fulgent wastrels and transcendental madmen.

    Vacuum City 2010

  •  He told of the wilting heat, the fulgent landscape, the people.

    Ain't Comin' Back 2010

  • In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”

    Amen to intellectualism! WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008

  • OK I've been known to drop ambivalent, but I have never said fulgent or supercilious!

    Amen to intellectualism! WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008

  • In contrast, a pedant is a supercilious show-off who drops references to Sophocles and masks his shallowness by using words like “fulgent” and “supercilious.”

    Archive 2008-11-01 WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008

  • OK I've been known to drop ambivalent, but I have never said fulgent or supercilious!

    Archive 2008-11-01 WENDEE HOLTCAMP 2008

  • Uncharacteristically, he summoned his imagination instead, painting an ecstatic vision of the village under a fulgent canopy of stars and a crescent moon.

    Van Gogh's Transcendent Vision Mary Tompkins Lewis 2008

  • Dum vaga passim sidera fulgent, numerat longas tetricus horas, et sollicito nixus cubito suspirando viscera rumpit.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • In her good - tempered moments, is it not as full of lazy softness as in her brief fits of anger it is fulgent with quick-flashing fire?

    Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte 2004

  • The world had lost all form and definition; solid color without shadow or shape spilled across the landscape in two hues: blue, rich, vibrant, startling blue sky unbroken by a single wisp of cloud; and white, blinding white snow reflecting a fulgent late morning sun.

    The Mammoth Hunters Auel, Jean M. 1985

Comments

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  • "More recently, we’ve had some smart and well-educated presidents who scrambled to hide it. Richard Nixon was a self-loathing intellectual, and Bill Clinton camouflaged a fulgent brain behind folksy Arkansas aphorisms about hogs." (Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Nov. 9, 2008)

    November 11, 2008

  • "But still the magic volume holds

    The Raptur'd eye in realms apart

    And fulgent sorcery enfolds

    The willing mind and eager heart."

    - H. P. Lovecraft

    March 1, 2011

  • Most people think Ernest a dull gent

    Hi mom though is much more indulgent.

    To her he’s aglow,

    The star of the show,

    A man who is modest yet fulgent.

    Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit

    December 6, 2017

  • About time Ernest joined Wordnik I reckon.

    December 6, 2017

  • He is quite a self-effacing fellow, but I will confer with him.

    December 6, 2017