WORD OF THE DAY: RESPLENDENT

WORD OF THE DAY: RESPLENDENT

adjective|rih-SPLEN-dunt

What 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.

Examples of RESPLENDENT
“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.

Merriam Webster Dictionary