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jubilant

/ˈd͡ʒuːbɪlənt/
adjectiveB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Jubilant means bursting with joy after a win. Arms up, strangers hugging, noise everywhere.

It is a public and rather loud sort of happiness, which is why sport and politics use it so heavily: jubilant fans, a jubilant crowd outside the town hall, a jubilant text message at midnight. Quiet contentment is never jubilant. The noun jubilation names the scene rather than the feeling, and the same root gives us jubilee, a celebration of a long reign or a long marriage. The word wants a reason and a moment — you are jubilant about something, and rarely for long.

Definitions of jubilant

  1. 1adjectivejubilantShowing great happiness, especially after a success.B2

    “Jubilant supporters filled the square.”

    synonyms: elated, triumphant

Where it comes from

From Latin iubilans ("shouting for joy").

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 13 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

jubilant in the wild

  • The Gospel for the Sunday was the Entry into Jerusalem, thus the mood of the secular work matched "the people's jubilant shouts of Hosanna".

    Schwingt freudig euch empor, BWV 36

  • The memorial is unusual for its representation of a jubilant soldier returning home.

    Twickenham War Memorial

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.