Refulgent

Dictionary.com's Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 8, 2009

refulgent \rih-FUL-juhnt\, adjective:
Shining brightly; radiant; brilliant; resplendent.

If Moore was not quite a burned-out case, his once refulgent light flickered only dimly in his sad last years.-- Martin Filler, "The Spirit of '76", New Republic, July 9, 2001

With its improbable towers tilting against themselves and its titanium sheathing in full refulgent glow, it brings on a question that the world has not enjoyed asking itself since the first moon landings: If this is possible, what isn't?-- Richard Lacayo, "The Frank Gehry Experience", Time, June 26, 2000



To the Renaissance, they [the Middle Ages] were nothing but a dank patch of history, a barren stretch of time between luminous antiquity and an equally refulgent present.-- Justin Davidson, "On the Record", Newsday, January 19, 1997


Refulgent comes from the present participle of Latin refulgere, "to flash back, to shine brightly," from re-, "back" + fulgere, "to shine."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for refulgent