Vibrant

How to spell vibrant

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vibrant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vibrant mean?

1. adjectiveFull of energy and life, or strikingly bright and vivid.

Vibrant in a sentence

• The harbour district has become a vibrant centre for restaurants and music.

• She painted the kitchen a vibrant shade of yellow to brighten the room.

Where does vibrant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb vibrare, which meant to move quickly to and fro, to shake, or to brandish a weapon. Its present participle vibrantem literally described something that was quivering or shaking, and English took up the word around the 1550s with that physical sense of rapid trembling motion. From the idea of lively, energetic movement the meaning broadened so that by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries vibrant could describe a voice that resonates, a colour that seems to leap out, or a person or place full of life. The same Latin root sits openly inside the everyday word 'vibrate', which is a useful spelling anchor: keep the vibr- of vibrate and simply add -ant. Because the ending is an unstressed schwa, it is the -ant (not -ent) finish that catches some writers out.

How the word is built

• vibr- (from Latin vibrare: to shake, quiver)
• -ant (adjective suffix: doing or being)