vibrant

Pluralvibrants

1. 1
   adjective

   Full of energy or activity, as if pulsing with life.

   The downtown district felt vibrant, alive with crowds and noise late into the night.

   A vibrant arts scene draws thousands of visitors to the town each summer.

   Similarlively, bustling, buzzing, dynamic, energetic

   Oppositedull, lifeless, sleepy

2. 2
   adjective

   Lively and vigorous; full of healthy, spirited energy.

   Her vibrant spirit made every conversation feel energizing.

   The team came back from the break vibrant and eager to compete.

   Similarlively, vigorous, energetic, spirited, vivacious

   Oppositelistless, lethargic, lifeless, dull

3. 3
   adjective

   Bright and richly colored.

   The artist chose vibrant blues and oranges for the mural.

   By October the leaves had turned vibrant shades of gold and crimson.

   Similarbright, vivid, brilliant, rich

   Oppositedull, pale, muted, drab

4. 4
   adjective

   Vibrating, resonant, or resounding.

   The cello produced a deep, vibrant note that filled the concert hall.

   A vibrant hum resonated through the iron beams of the bridge.

   Similarresonant, resounding, sonorous, rich

   Note

   Here the word stays closest to its Latin root: vibrans, the present participle of vibrare, "to vibrate." A vibrant string or voice is physically trembling and ringing. David Thomas Ffrangcon-Davies, in The Singing of the Future (1905), writes of "a vibrant voice in the true sense," as if the "lively" meaning already needed fencing off. Used of sound, the word still describes resonance rather than mood.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A consonant belonging to the class that includes taps and trills, such as a rolled or tapped 'r'.

   The alveolar trill is a vibrant found in many of the world's languages.

   Phoneticians group both taps and trills together as vibrants.

   Note

   Phonetics turns the adjective into a countable noun, plural vibrants, for consonants made by brief contacts between an active and a passive articulator. A tap makes a single contact. A trill keeps the contacts going through vibration sustained by the airstream, as in the alveolar trill [r]. The label groups the two because both strike rather than glide, which echoes the "vibrating" adjective.

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