Meaning & use
exuberate
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Meanings
verbintransitivearchaicrare
To be full of energy, excitement, or life; to show lively, overflowing high spirits.
Grammar: Used without an object, often of a person's mood or behavior: The crowd exuberated with joy.
Patterns
- exuberate with something
- exuberate in something
The children exuberated with delight at the first snowfall.
After the victory, the fans exuberated in the streets until midnight.
Her letters exuberate with a warmth that makes them a pleasure to read.
verbintransitivearchaicrare
To be present in large amounts; to grow or flow abundantly.
Grammar: No object; often used of plants, emotions, or natural things that seem to overflow.
Patterns
- exuberate in something
- exuberate with something
In spring, the garden exuberates with color and scent.
The region exuberates in natural resources.
Hope exuberated in the community after the good news.
Word forms
| third person singular | exuberates |
|---|---|
| past tense | exuberated |
| past participle | exuberated |
| -ing form | exuberating |
Common combinations
- exuberate with joy
- The whole village exuberated with joy on the day of the harvest.
- exuberate in spirit
- The young poet exuberated in spirit, writing late into the night.
- exuberate with life
- The forest exuberates with life in early summer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- abound
- More common and neutral; it means to exist in large numbers or amounts, not necessarily with lively energy.
- overflow
- Often used with 'with' to suggest something spilling over, like emotion or people; it is far more common than 'exuberate'.
- teem
- Used especially of places full of moving things (fish, people); it does not suggest high spirits in the same way.
Opposites
Word family
- exuberant adjective
- Full of energy and excitement; the usual modern word.
- exuberance noun
- The quality of being full of lively energy.
- exuberantly adverb
- In a lively, energetic way.
Commonly confused: exuberate or exuberant?
exuberate vs exuberant
The adjective is common today; 'exuberate' is archaic. Learners should use 'exuberant' in modern writing.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'exuberate' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Exuberate' is intransitive and means to be full of lively energy, so 'exuberated with excitement' fits. Option B is wrong because the verb does not take a direct object like 'the cake'; option C confuses the verb with the adjective 'exuberant'; option D is a plain action verb that does not match the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “exuberate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.