Brilliantly

How to spell brilliantly

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce brilliantly

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brilliantly mean?

1. adverbIn an outstandingly skilful, impressive, or vividly bright way.

Brilliantly in a sentence

• She brilliantly summarised the entire quarterly report in two pages.

• The kitchen was brilliantly lit by the morning sun through the new windows.

Where does brilliantly come from?

Language of origin: French

This adverb is built on the adjective 'brilliant', which English borrowed from the French brillant, the present participle of the verb briller, meaning 'to shine' or 'to sparkle'. French in turn took the word from the Italian brillare, 'to shine', and many scholars trace it further back to the Latin beryllus, the precious stone beryl, which was prized for its glittering lustre. When the word arrived in English in the late 1600s it first described literal sparkle and dazzling light, then quickly broadened to mean outstanding cleverness or excellence. The adverb form simply adds the familiar '-ly' ending to the adjective, keeping the doubled 'll' and the tricky '-iant' sequence intact. The main spelling trap is remembering the two 'l's and the 'ia' before the 'ntly' cluster, since the schwa swallows those vowels in speech.

How the word is built

• brilliant (shining, from briller 'to shine')
• -ly (adverb suffix)