Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Thrilling |
ThrillingAdjective1. Causing a surge of emotion or excitement; "she gave a electrifying performance"; "a thrilling performer to watch". 2. Causing quivering or shivering as by cold or fear or electric shock; "a thrilling wind blew off the frozen lake". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "thrilling" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Synonym: ThrillingSynonym: electrifying (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Excitation | Exciting, absorbing, riveting, distracting; Verb: impressive, warm, glowing, fervid, swelling, imposing, spirit-stirring, thrilling; high-wrought; soul-stirring, soul-subduing; heart-stirring, heart-swelling, heart-thrilling; agonizing; (painful); telling, sensational, hysterical; overpowering, overwhelming; more than flesh and blood can bear; yellow. |
Feeling | Impressive, deep, profound, indelible; deep felt, home felt, heartfelt; swelling, soul-stirring, deep-mouthed, heart-expanding, electric, thrilling, rapturous, ecstatic. |
Pain | Shocking, terrific, grim, appalling, crushing; dreadful, fearful, frightful; thrilling, tremendous, dire; heart-breaking, heart-rending, heart-wounding, heart-corroding, heart-sickening; harrowing, rending. |
Charming; delightful, felicitous, exquisite; lovely; (beautiful); ravishing, rapturous; heartfelt, thrilling, ecstatic; beatic; beatific; seraphic; empyrean; elysian; (heavenly). | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Thrilling |
| English words defined with "thrilling": dramatic ♦ electric, electrification, electrifying ♦ galvanic, galvanising, galvanizing ♦ spectacular, striking ♦ Thrillant, To throw out. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "thrilling": Ropes. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "thrilling": Thrillant. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | A thrilling space saga of romance, rebellion, and household appliances (Hardware Wars; writing credit: Ernie Fosselius) Time for some thrilling heroics (Firefly; writing credit: John Sullivan) I don't know about it being thrilling. But it's quite a bomber (To Be or Not to Be; writing credit: Melchior Lengyel; Edwin Justus Mayer) Oh, how perfectly thrilling! (To Be or Not to Be; writing credit: Melchior Lengyel; Edwin Justus Mayer) | |
Lyrics | You're so thrilling (What's New Pussycat; performing artist: Tom Jones) | |
Tongue Twisters | Three free thrilling frills fought on Ruth's roof. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Thrilling Drilling (1974) One Thrilling Night (1942) Sport Thrills: Thrilling Moments (1938) Thrilling Youth (1926) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A thrilling incident during voting,--18th Ward, Philadelphia, Oct. 11. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | It is thrilling to find yourself dancing the one-step with a total stranger in uniform. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Soliloquy of the Minnesota viking in the thrilling Ballinger-Pinchot melodrama -- "shall I whitewash or shall I probe". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | A thrilling act. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Interior of the Grand Duke's Theater - The audience during the performance of the thrilling spectacle of the march of "The Mulligan Guards" / J. B. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Barnum and Bailey greatest show on earth--L'Auto Bolide thrilling dip of death--M'lle Mauricia de Tiers, the fearless, young and fascinating Parisian, in a dreadful, headlong leap, loop and topsy turvy plunging somersault with an automobile [...]. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | "A thrilling story". Credit: Library of Congress. |  | After a thrilling chase through the busiest streets of Washington, ... a couple of bootleggers and their car come to grief at the hands of the Capitol police. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Streets of New York thrilling fire scene. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Chas. H. Kabrich, the only bike-chute aeronaut novel and thrilling, bicycle parachute act in mid-air. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Iris Murdoch | Every man needs two women, a quiet home-maker, and a thrilling nymph. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | The voice had been so thrilling, the man standing there appeared so calm, that at first nobody could comprehend it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Catherine Zeta-Jones | Sure, but I was just thrilled that they even considered me as a Best Actress. You know I was really quite surprised, I mean when I had the nomination. I didn't care what it was as long as I got it. It was so thrilling. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Thrilling" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 55.84% of the time. "Thrilling" is used about 197 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 55.84% | 110 | 30,952 |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 42.13% | 83 | 36,350 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.02% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (singular) | 1.02% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 197 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "thrilling": spine-thrilling. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
thrilling | 9 |
detective thrilling | 9 |
chilling haunted house sound thrilling | 3 |
chilling disney effects halloween sound thrilling | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "thrilling"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tronditës (appallingly, electric, emotive, horrible, shocking), emocionues (emotive), drithërues (spooky). (various references) | |
Arabic | فاتن (alluring, attractive, breathtaking, captivating, catching, charming, cute, darling, enchanting, engaging, entrancing, exquisite, fascinating, glamorous, glamourous, likely, lovely, magic, magical, mesmeric, personable, philanderer, picturesque, pretty, ravishing, seducer, spellbinding, stunning, superb, sweet, tempter, winning, winsome, zestful), مثير (agitating, breathtaking, electrifying, excitant, excitative, exciting, fomenting, galvanizing, hair raising, impetus, incentive, inciting, inspiring, instigating, irritative, provocative, provoking, rousing, sensational, sore, spectacular, stimulant, stimulating, stimulative, stirring), نابض (graphic, graphical, impulsive, palpitant, pulsatile, pulsatory, pulsing, spring), إثارة (aggravation, agitation, excitation, excitement, instigation, irritation, provocation, splash, stir, stirring, trepidation). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | сензационен (lurid, red-hot, scare, sensational, sultry, yellow), силно вълнуващ, трептящ (trembling, vibrant, vibratory, wavering), пронизващ (cutting, harsh, keen, raw, searching, strident), предизвикващ трептене. (various references) | |
Chinese | 兴奋 (Effervesce, Effervesced, Effervescing, Exaltation, Excitatory, Excitement, Exhilarate, Exhilarated, Exhilarating, heady, mind-blowing, thrill, thrilled, tingle). (various references) | |
Czech | vzrušující (exciting, rousing, stirring), strhující (arresting, entrancing, impressive, stirring, vehement), senzaèní (delicious, fine, gorgeous, grand, great, groovy, hot, magic, mean, sensational, smashing, startling, stunning, swell, terrific, wonderful), poutavý (absorbing, arresting, attractive, catchy, exciting, griping, gripping, intriguing, winning), napínavý (exciting, gripping). (various references) | |
Finnish | repäisevä (drastic), jännittävä (exciting). (various references) | |
French | palpitant. (various references) | |
German | spannend (dramatic, engrossing, enthralling, exciting, fascinating, gripping, interesting, stretching, suspense-packed). (various references) | |
Greek | συγκινητικόσ (affecting, emotional, moving, pathetic, pathetical, touching), συναρπαστικός (exciting, exhilarating, gripping), εντυπωσιακόσ (arresting, impressive, sensational, startling). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מרתק (absorbing, binding, connecting, enthralling, exciting, gripping, mooring berth, spectacular). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szenzációs (lurid, sensational, sensationist), izgató (agitator, disturbing, excitant, excitative, exciter, exciting, irritant, irritative, piquant, prompter, stimulant, stimulating, stirrer, stirring, upsetting), izgalmas (exciting, gripping, hairy-assed, stirring, to hit the high lights, to hit the high spots), borzongató (creepy-crawly). (various references) | |
Italian | entusiasmante (rousing), emozionante (emotional, engrossing, eventful, exciting, fascinating, moving), eccitante (excitant, exciting, heady, stimulant, stirring). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 痛快 (intense pleasure), スリラー " (slew rate, Sri Lanka, thrill, thriller, through, throughput). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | つうかい (commentary, explanation, intense pleasure), スリリング . (various references) | |
Korean | 오싹. (various references) | |
Manx | creauagh. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | illingthray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | vibrante (plangent, ringing, rousing, vibrant), sensacional (fantastic, fantastical, lurid, sensational, startling, terrific), emocionante (exciting), eletrizante, comovedor (moving, touching), arrebatador (catchy, enchanting, enthralling, entrancing, fairy, impetuous, magic, magical, orphic, rapturous, ravishing, ripping, vibrant). (various references) | |
Romanian | tulburãtor (exciting, movingly), trepidant (agitated, throbbing), zguduitor (awful, shaking, staggering, terrible, tremendous), senzaţional (rattling, sensational, startling), pasionant (fascinating, palpitating), pãtrunzãtor (acute, astute, clear, clear-sighted, comprehensive, deep, deeply, discerning, harsh, high pitched, in-going, keen, loud, Parky, penetrating, perspicacious, piercing, quick, rich, sagacious, screaming, searching, sharp, shrewd, shrill, strident, subtle, touching), entuziasmant (elating, enthusing, soul-lifting), emoţionant (exciting, gripping, moving, palpitating, pathetic, pathetically, touching), cutremur (convulsion, earthquake, fright, shaking, shock, terror), captivant (absorbing, captivating, charming, engaging, engrossing, exciting, fascinating, gripping), înfiorare. (various references) | |
Russian | волнующий (alarming, disturbing, dramatic, emotional, emotive, moving, worrying), вибрирующий (vibrant, vibratory). (various references) | |
Scottish | trileanta. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | uzbudljiv (breathtaking, excitative, excitatory, exciting, skittish, stirring), senzacionalan (sensational). (various references) | |
Spanish | sensacional (hit, lurid, sensational), emocionante (deep-felt, discomposing, emotional, exciting, exiting, irritating, moving, stirring), conmovedor (affecting, appealing, exciting, moving, poignant, rousing, shattering, soulful, touching), apasionante. (various references) | |
Swedish | spännande (cliffhanging, enthraling, enthralling, exciting, stirring), rafflande (exciting). (various references) | |
Turkish | titreyen (atremble, quaking, shaking, trembling, tremulous, wavering, wavy), heyecanlı (agitated, aglow, agog, astir, crazed, declamatory, dramatic, emotional, excitable, excited, exciting, febrile, feverish, glowing, gone, gripping, happy, heated, hectic, het up, hot, impassioned, in a lather, inspired, nail biting, rhapsodic, rhapsodical, spirited, stormy, tiptoe, vibrant, warm, wrought up, zealous), heyecan verici (electric, exciting, orgiastic, rousing, sensational, stirring). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | хвилюючий (affecting, alarming, dramatic, emotional, emotive, heartwarming, stirring, troublous), вібруючий, пронизливий (acute, argute, brazen, cutting, keen, penetrating, piercing, piping, screaming, searching, shrill, stabbing). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | xúc động (affective, emotional, emotive), ly kỳ, l m rùng mình; cảm động, h"i hộp. (various references) | |
Welsh | gwefreiddiol (electrifying), cynhyrfiol (stirring). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "thrilling": thrillingly. (additional references) | |
| |
"Thrilling" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: trillings. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "thrilling" (pronounced thri"ling) |
| 5 | -r i" l i ng | drilling, grilling, rilling, trilling. |
| 4 | -i" l i ng | billing, chilling, distilling, filling, fulfilling, hilling, instilling, killing, milling, Pilling, quilling, Schilling, shilling, skilling, spilling, swilling, Tilling, unwilling, willing, yearling. |
| 3 | -l i ng | annealing, appalling, appealing, ailing, ambling, angling, assailing, assembling, babbling, backpedaling, baffling, bailing, baling, balling, bankrolling, barreling, battling, beguiling, belittling, Belling, bicycling, blackmailing, boggling, boiling, Bolling, bottling, bowling, brawling, bristling, broiling, bubbling, buckling, bugling, bumbling, bundling, bungling, burgling, burling, bustling, cackling, cajoling, calling, canceling, cancelling, Carling, ceiling, channeling, chortling, chronicling, chuckling, circling, coddling, commingling, compelling, compiling, concealing, consoling, controlling, cooling, corralling, counseling, countervailing, coupling, cowling, crackling, cradling, crawling, crippling, crumbling, cuddling, culling, curling, curtailing, cycling, dabbling, dangling, darling, dawdling, dazzling, dealing, decoupling, derailing, detailing, Dialing, disabling, disgruntling, dismantling, dispelling, dissembling, doling, doubling, dribbling, drizzling, drooling, duckling, dueling, dulling, dumpling, dwelling, dwindling, earthling, emailing, embezzling, empaneling, enabling, encircling, enrolling, entailing, entangling, entitling, equaling, excelling, expelling, extolling, failing, falling, feeling, felling, fiddling, filing, fizzling, flailing, fledgling, foaling, foiling, fondling, fooling, forestalling, foretelling, fouling, foundling, freewheeling, fueling, fuelling, fumbling, funneling, galling, gambling, giggling, gobbling, grappling, Grayling, groundling, groveling, growling, grueling, grumbling, gurgling, guzzling, haggling, hailing, handling, hassling, hauling, healing, heckling, helling, hobbling, holing, howling, huddling, humbling, hurdling, hurling, hurtling, hustling, idling, imperiling, inhaling, initialing, inkling, installing, intermingling, jailing, jiggling, jostling, juggling, Keeling, kindling, kneeling, labeling, leveling, lolling, Lulling, mailing, mangling, Marling, marshaling, meddling, Melling, middling, mingling, mishandling, mislabeling, misspelling, modeling, mothballing, mottling, muddling, mulling, mumbling, muscling, nailing, needling, nestling, nibbling, nonruling, oiling, outselling, overbilling, overhauling, overkilling, overruling, overselling, paddling, paneling, panhandling, paralleling, parboiling, parceling, paroling, patrolling, pearling, pedaling, peddling, peeling, pickling, piddling, piling, Pindling, poling, polling, pooling, prevailing, profiling, propelling, prowling, pulling, pummeling, puzzling, quadrupling, quarreling, quelling, quibbling, Quisling, railing, rambling, rankling, rappelling, rattling, raveling, rebelling, recalling, reconciling, recycling, redoubling, reeling, refueling, regaling, rekindling, remodeling, repealing, repelling, rescheduling, reselling, resembling, reshuffling, retailing, retelling, retooling, revealing, reveling, ridiculing, Riesling, rifling, rippling, rivaling, roiling, rolling, rototilling, ruffling, ruling, rumbling, rustling, saddling, sailing, sampling, Sandling, sapling, scaling, scheduling, schooling, scowling, scrambling, scribbling, scuttling, sealing, seedling, Seeling, selling, settling, shelling, shoveling, shriveling, shuffling, shuttling, sibling, signaling, signalling, singling, sizzling, smelling, smiling, smuggling, snarling, Snelling, snowballing, sparkling, Sparling, spelling, spiraling, spiralling, spoiling, sprawling, sprinkling, squabbling, squealing, stalling, stapling, starling, startling, stealing, stenciling, sterling, stifling, stockpiling, stonewalling, storytelling, straddling, strangling, strickling, stripling, strolling, struggling, stumbling, styling, suckling, surveilling, swashbuckling, swelling, swindling, swirling, swiveling, tabling, tackling, tailing, tangling, telling, throttling, tingling, tinkling, toddling, toggling, toiling, tolling, tooling, toppling, totaling, totalling, toweling, trailing, trampling, traveling, travelling, trembling, trickling, trifling, tripling, trolling, troubling, tumbling, tunneling, twiddling, twinkling, twirling, unappealing, unavailing, unbundling, underling, underselling, unfailing, unfeeling, unfurling, unraveling, unsettling, unsmiling, untangling, unveiling, veiling, waffling, waggling, wailing, walling, warbling, weakling, welling, whaling, wheeling, whirling, whistling, whittling, wholesaling, wiggling, wiling, wobbling, wrangling, wrestling, wrinkling, yelling, yodeling. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-h-i-i-l-l-n-r-t" | |
-1 letter: thirling, trilling. | |
-2 letters: hilling, hilting, lilting, rilling, tilling, tirling. | |
-3 letters: hiring, nitril, riling, thrill, tiling, tiring. | |
-4 letters: girth, glint, grill, grith, iring, light, night, nihil, right, thill, thing, thirl, trill. | |
-5 letters: gill, gilt, girl, girn, girt, grin, grit, hili, hill, hilt, hint, inti, lilt, ling, lint, liri, nigh, nill, rill, ring, thin, thir, till, ting. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-h-i-i-l-l-n-r-t" | |
+2 letters: inthralling, thrillingly. | |
+5 letters: disenthralling, exhilaratingly, ornithological. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Spoken 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
