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effulgent

ef·fulg·ent/ɪˈfʌld͡ʒənt/adjective

effulgent is an adjective meaning “Radiant, resplendent, shining” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-F-F-U-L-G-E-N-T and has 3 syllables (ef·fulg·ent), and it appears about once in every 28 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does effulgent mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Radiant, resplendent, shining.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce effulgent?

  • UK /ɪˈfʌldʒ(ə)nt/
  • UK /ɛ-/
  • US /ɪˈfʌld͡ʒənt/

Effulgent has 3 syllables, split ef·fulg·ent in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-effulgent.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of effulgent

  • more effulgent comparative
  • most effulgent superlative
  • affulgent

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is effulgent?

Effulgent appears about once in every 28 million words in written English, the 159,707th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Effulgent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense radiant, resplendent, shining – see also radiant, resplendent, shining:

LanguageWords
Frenchrayonnant, rayonnante
Germanglänzend, strahlend
Portuguesefúlgido

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does effulgent come from?

From Latin effulgēns (“flashing, glittering”), present participle of effulgeō (“to shine or gleam forth, flash, glitter”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘out; away’)) + fulgeō (“to flash, gleam, glisten, glitter, shine”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny; white”)). By surface analysis, ef- + Latin fulg(ere) + -ent.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).