exuberant

From Middle French exubérant, from Latin exūberāns, the present active participle of exūberō (“be abundant”). Put together from ex (“out”), and uber (“udder”), and originally would have referred to a cow or she-goat which was making so much milk that it naturally dripped or sprayed from the udder.

• IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzuːbəɹənt/

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exuberant (comparative more exuberant, superlative most exuberant)

1. (of people) Very cheery and peppy; extremely cheerful, energetic and enthusiastic.

   Synonyms: buoyant, cheerful, high-spirited

   exuberant feeling

   • 1882, Frank R. Stockton, The Lady or the Tiger?:

     He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal of an authority so irresistible that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts.

   • 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22:

     She was a tall, earthy, exuberant girl with long hair and a pretty face.

2. (literary, of things that grow) Abundant, luxuriant.

   Synonyms: profuse, superabundant

   exuberant foliage

   • 1852, The Ark, and Odd Fellows' Western Magazine:

     It pencilled each flower with rich and variegated hues, and threw over its exuberant foliage a vesture of emerald green.

   • 1972, Ken Lemmon, "Restoration Work at Studley Royal," Garden History, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 22:

     The County Architect's Department is starting to pleach trees to open up these vistas, now almost hidden by the exuberant growth.

3. (medicine) Unusually proliferative, widespread or extreme, particularly in relation to a disease, immune reaction, or tissue

• exuberance

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

• “exuberant”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “exuberant”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

exūberant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of exūberō

From Latin exūberāns.

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exuberant m (feminine singular exuberanta, masculine plural exuberants, feminine plural exuberantas)

1. exuberant (of a person: very high-spirited)
2. exuberant (abundant)

• exuberància

Borrowed from French exubérant, from Latin exuberans.

exuberant m or n (feminine singular exuberantă, masculine plural exuberanți, feminine and neuter plural exuberante)

1. exuberant