Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day for Tuesday, September 8, 2009

refulgent rih-FUL-juhnt, adjective:
Shining brightly; radiant; brilliant; resplendent.

If Moore was not quite a burned-out case, his once refulgent light flickered only dimly in his sad last years.– Martin Filler, “The Spirit of ’76”, New Republic, July 9, 2001

With its improbable towers tilting against themselves and its titanium sheathing in full refulgent glow, it brings on a question that the world has not enjoyed asking itself since the first moon landings: If this is possible, what isn’t?– Richard Lacayo, “The Frank Gehry Experience”, Time, June 26, 2000

To the Renaissance, they [the Middle Ages] were nothing but a dank patch of history, a barren stretch of time between luminous antiquity and an equally refulgent present.– Justin Davidson, “On the Record”, Newsday, January 19, 1997

Refulgent comes from the present participle of Latin refulgere, “to flash back, to shine brightly,” from re-, “back” + fulgere, “to shine.”
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for refulgent