Brilliancy
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A shining quality; brilliance. countable, uncountable
"[…] to assist greatly in the consumption of the lamp, and to diminish the aqueous precipitations produced on the interior of the lantern glass, which has the effect of reducing more or less the brilliancy of the light."
- 2 a quality that outshines the usual wordnet
- 3 An act of being brilliant. countable, uncountable
"His brilliancy lay in combining old concepts from far-flung fields into a new idea."
- 4 A spectacular and beautiful game of chess, generally featuring sacrificial attacks and unexpected moves. countable, uncountable
"Bobby Fischer, one of the greatest chess players who ever lived, died at the age of sixty-four from kidney failure. He had lived one year for each square on a chessboard. / THE GOOD / First of all, you should learn the term “brilliancy.” It refers to a game that is played with spectacular strategy and beauty, typically featuring unexpected moves and ingenious ideas. In other words, the game is extraordinary! At age thirteen, Bobby Fischer won a brilliancy against twenty-six-year-old Donald Byrne."
Example
More examples"But under all her sparkle there was a strongly felt undercurrent of true, womanly sympathy and kind-heartedness which won affection as easily as her brilliancy won admiration. Nor did she monopolize the conversation. She could draw others out as skillfully and fully as she could talk herself."
Etymology
From brilliant + -ancy; attested earlier than brilliance. Compare French brillance.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.