Powerfully exciting or intoxicating enough to affect judgment or the senses.
Reach for it when describing exhilaration while acknowledging its potentially dizzying force
The team enjoyed the heady first week of unexpected national attention.
| playful | |
|---|---|
| everyday | |
| warm | |
| professional | |
| formal | |
| literary |
|
playful
Fits when delight causes light, unsteady excitement
Careful Giddy can sound childish or unserious in professional praise.
everyday
Fits when plain wording is more important than sensory force
Careful Exciting undersells the almost intoxicating quality of heady.
everyday
Fits when excitement and suspense are central
Careful Thrilling is broadly positive and lacks heady's dizzy excess.
warm
Fits when strong excitement feels energizing and welcome
Careful Exhilarating does not suggest impaired judgment or sensory intensity.
professional
Fits when an unusually intense state of elation is meant
Careful Euphoric is stronger and can have clinical associations.
formal
dizzying
Fits when rapid success or scale is disorienting as well as impressive
Careful Dizzying can sound negative and need not be pleasurable.
literary
intoxicating
Fits when pleasure is so powerful that it alters perspective
Careful Intoxicating can invoke alcohol or unhealthy loss of control.
heady days
The memoir recalls the heady days when the small theater first opened.
heady success
Heady success did not distract the founders from the next safety review.
heady mixture
A heady mixture of relief and pride filled the workshop.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Vealhurl, Southern England accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Updated
Your browser isn't saving lists, so this one will be cleared when you leave the page.