THRILLS Synonyms: 66 Similar and Opposite Words

thrills 1 of 2

noun

plural of thrill

as in kicks

a pleasurably intense stimulation of the feelings everyone gets a real thrill out of the Independence Day fireworks

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thrills

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of thrill

as in excites

to cause a pleasurable stimulation of the feelings of I was thrilled to hear that you got the promotion that you'd been so desperately wanting

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of thrills

Noun

Spooky season is all about getting your thrills, and for the literary-inclined, there is plenty to look forward to this month. — Theara Coleman, TheWeek, 8 Oct. 2026 The Grammy-winning ensemble will host a night of symphonic thrills at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre. — Deasia Paige, AJC.com, 8 Oct. 2026 Thanks to Breck Create, which puts on the Breckenridge International Festival of Art each summer, there are a few very easy trail spots to access for fun thrills. — Mindy Sink, Denver Post, 8 Oct. 2026 By having the courage to avoid ecstatic thrills and powerful peaks, Bowery Electric forces you to abide with the sound and absorb it without being able to do anything with it. — Sadie Sartini Garner, Pitchfork, 4 Oct. 2026 These are primal thrills most viewers can get behind, and having to slow down to explain the morality behind them makes for languid viewing. — Siddhant Adlakha, IndieWire, 21 Sep. 2026 The cars spiral over and under portions of the park’s multilevel escalator, and include four launches, an inverted dive loop, twisted pretzel loop, an inverted stall and other thrills, reaching speed of 72 mph. — Carole Horst, Variety, 18 Sep. 2026 By the 2000s, there were growing concerns about the potential health effects of all those thrills across the industry. — Fedor Zarkhin, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2026 There will be cheer and thrills and profits generated by the burgeoning technology in the years to come. — Michael Santoli, CNBC, 15 Sep. 2026

Verb

Railing against a new crop of progressive candidates has emerged as a more animating focus for a president who thrills to a fight. — Francesca Chambers, USA Today, 5 July 2026 Her strict economy, honed by her early years of writing and endlessly revising (under the exacting eye of Allene Talmey) tight captions for Vogue, thrills the editor in me. — Zinzi Clemmons, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2026 The idea unnerves critics but thrills its architects. — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 6 May 2026 Being on the very limit — that’s what thrills him. — Luke Smith, New York Times, 1 Apr. 2026 Abigail is the one who clearly thrills to performance; Shaun consistently orbits her sun, giving the impression of the bearded and bespectacled multi-instrumentalist who’d be happy jamming on the sidelines. — Sara Holdren, Vulture, 17 Mar. 2026 But all that intensity and power unappreciated by that Belle Epoque audience now thrills us to our core. — Luis Palomares, Miami Herald, 27 Feb. 2026 The mind thrills to imagine a genderless prophet among the brocades and buckskin breeches of Revolutionary America, weirding out the normies, sticking a flower in the barrel of a musket, and goading the new nation to let its hair down—literally. — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025 While airborne, the dancer crosses his legs in the air twice before landing, a feat that thrills ballet enthusiasts who are known to burst into applause at its conclusion. — Marcia Luttrell, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for thrills

Noun

On the other, evidence suggests this pair of habitual time-wasters were commonly found on the floor, running laughter through a Yamaha SPX90 effects processor for kicks and strumming the same note for 40-odd minutes.

— Gabriel Szatan, Pitchfork, 18 Oct. 2026
It’s been better said before by other people, but just trying to fill up that vacuum with kicks.

— Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of kicks

Verb

Standing amid the ruins of the villa and grotto, you might be overwhelmed by the ancient mythology that electrifies the air here.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Aug. 2026
What starts as one state utility trying to see its own network more clearly could end up as part of the blueprint for how the developing world electrifies its future.

— Ken Silverstein, Forbes.com, 10 May 2026

Definition of electrifies

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thrilling

thrills

thrive

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“Thrills.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thrills. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of thrills

noun

verb

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