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Exhilaration

Psychology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Vigorous excitement and buoyant joy, often from freedom or achievement.

Detailed Definition
Exhilaration animates poetry with rapid movement, open spaces, and liberated syntax. It celebrates escape, triumph, or passionate connection, often in odes or travel verse. Poets convey it through sensory abundance and energetic rhythm, yet exhilaration's intensity can be fleeting, shadowed by its opposite. It serves as a counterweight to despair, affirming life's vitality and the thrill of being fully present.
Example
Example in poetry:
Exhilaration in Emily Dickinson's "Exhilaration is the Breeze" describes exhilaration as lifting us from the ground; Charles Baudelaire's "The Wine Of Lovers" mixes exhilaration with surrender; "The Sailor" finds exhilaration in racing before furious seas; Victor Hernández Cruz's "Latin & Soul" reimagines a night of dancing with exhilaration; Emma Lazarus's "Exultation" celebrates exaltation; The poem "Exhilaration" describes enormous speeds and wild laughter.
Additional Notes
Exhilaration animates poetry with rapid movement, open spaces, and liberated syntax, celebrating escape, triumph, or passionate connection. Poets convey it through sensory abundance and energetic rhythm, yet exhilaration's intensity can be fleeting. In teaching, distinguish exhilaration from elation: exhilaration is vigorous excitement from freedom or achievement, while elation is intense joy. Exhilaration serves as a counterweight to despair, affirming life's vitality. Students should examine how poets use vivid verbs, exclamatory syntax, and imagery of motion or flight to convey exhilaration's kinetic energy.
Also Known As
Euphoria excitement joy elation thrill
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