thrill means A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion; a frisson. It carries an Arena rating of 1654, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, thrill ranks #88 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #366 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #678 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #762 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
thrill is pronounced /θɹɪl/.
Why “thrill” is a great word
A sudden, piercing wave of intense emotion or excitement. From Middle English *thirlen*, from Old English *þȳrlian* ("to pierce, perforate"), derived from *þȳrel* ("hole"); the sense evolved from physical piercing to a figurative piercing of the emotions by the late 14th century. Unlike "electrify," which surges through a crowd like an impersonal current, or "allay," its direct antonym that soothes agitation, a thrill is an intimate, pleasurable shudder. It is the sharp intake of breath at the crest of a rollercoaster, the cold shock of a secret shared, the frisson of a violin note held just beyond breaking—a momentary puncture in the mundane that reminds us we are not yet numb.
Etymology
From Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), derived from þȳrel (“hole”) (archaic English thirl). Doublet of thirl (verb).
noun
- A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion; a frisson.
- A cause of sudden excitement; a kick.e.g.“The thrill is gone / Gone, gone for me / I still live on, lonely though I'll be” — 1951, Roy Hawkins, Rick Darnell, “The Thrill Is Gone”:
- A slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
- A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.
verb
- To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.e.g.“The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled,
That sudden cold did run through every vein.” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37:
- To (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
- To perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.e.g.“he perced through his chaufed chest
With thrilling point of deadly yron brand” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42:
- To hurl; to throw; to cast.e.g.“I'd thrill my jauelin at the Grecian moysture” — 1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age:
- To drill and thread in one operation, using a tool bit that cuts the hole and the threads in one series of computer-controlled movements.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.