glorious

The word “glorious” means deserving great praise or admiration; magnificent. In plain terms, splendid, magnificent, or wonderful — worthy of glory.

“Glorious” is pronounced GLAW-ree-uhs (/ˈɡlɔɹ.i.əs/ in IPA).

Here is “glorious” used in a sentence: “It was a glorious victory for the underdog team.”

“Glorious” is an adjective.

The word “glorious” comes from Latin. From Old French glorïos, from Latin gloriosus, from gloria ("glory").

“Glorious” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Glorious” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: deserving great praise or admiration; magnificent.

Both describe something deserving great praise or admiration, and in many sentences they are interchangeable. "Magnificent" tends to emphasise impressive scale or splendour, while "glorious" often carries a note of triumph or joy, as in "a glorious victory". Informally, "glorious" can also simply mean wonderful or delightful, as in "a glorious afternoon".

"Glorious" works in both registers. In formal writing it means deserving great praise or admiration, as in "a glorious achievement", while in everyday speech it is often used informally to mean wonderful or delightful, especially about weather, food, or experiences. Context makes the intended strength clear.

"Glorious" is a genuine compliment meaning magnificent or deserving admiration. "Glorified" is usually dismissive: calling something "a glorified X" suggests it has been dressed up to seem grander than it really is, as in "the role is just a glorified errand-runner". The two words should not be swapped.

"Glorious" pairs naturally with nouns for achievements, weather, and experiences: a glorious victory, a glorious sunset, glorious weather, a glorious career, and glorious colours are all common collocations. In its informal sense of "wonderful", it also appears in phrases like "a glorious day out".