Brill

//bɹɪl// adj, name, noun, slang

adj, name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of flatfish, Scophthalmus rhombus.
  2. 2
    European food fish wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Clipping of brilliant; wonderful, amusing; cool. UK, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang

    "That song is totally brill, innit!"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
  2. 2
    A village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, previously in Aylesbury Vale district (OS grid ref SP6514).
  3. 3
    A hamlet in Constantine parish, south-west Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SW7229).
  4. 4
    A neighbourhood of Elberfeld, Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
  5. 5
    An unincorporated community in the town of Oak Grove, Barron County, Wisconsin, United States.

Synonyms

All synonyms
scophthalmus rhombus

Example

More examples

"The Purbeck beds follow the line of the Jurassic outcrop from Dorsetshire, through the Vale of Wardour, Swindon, Garsington, Brill and Aylesbury."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Possibly from Cornish brilli (“mackerel”), from brithelli, plural of brithel (“mackerel”), from brith (“spotted”), from Proto-Brythonic *briθ.

Etymology 2

* As an English surname, from Brill in Buckinghamshire, said to be from Proto-Brythonic *breɣ (“hill”) + Old English hyll (“hill”). * As a Dutch and north German surname, from Middle Low German brul (“low wetland”). Compare the variant Bruehl. * Also as a German surname, from the noun Brille (“eyeglasses”). * As a Jewish surname, from a Hebrew acronym of בן רבי (ben rabi, “son of rabbi”) followed by a Yiddish personal name, such as "Ben Rabbi Yehuda Levi".

Related phrases

Brill BuildingBrill-Zinsser diseaseNew Zealand brill

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.