adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brilliant/amazing bargain
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The house they bought was an amazing bargain.
a brilliant/enquiring/logical etc mind
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a bright child with an enquiring mind
a brilliant/magnificent/superb performance
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Rogers gave a brilliant performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
a distinguished/brilliant career (= very successful )
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She retired last year after a distinguished career as a barrister.
a great/brilliant/excellent idea
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What a great idea!
bright/brilliant/blazing/dazzling sunshine
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We stepped out of the plane into the bright sunshine of Corfu.
brilliant/blinding flash
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a brilliant flash of light
great/brilliant (= very good to watch )
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We're sure it's going to be another great match.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
absolutely
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The Heguy cousins were absolutely brilliant , and both played a wonderful game, scoring most of the goals between them!
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And-guess what-it sounds absolutely brilliant . $ band pieces are impressive enough.
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Admit it - as scams go, this one is absolutely brilliant .
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Male speaker Absolutely brilliant , just look at it.
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I've just bought Moby's album, Play-it's absolutely brilliant .
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The fashion parade was absolutely brilliant .
as
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Everyone he had shown it to had described it as brilliant , and by all accounts it was; rejection hurt.
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You mean, I suppose, that society here is not as brilliant ?
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She was rather younger than me and known to be as brilliant as her hair.
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An album as brilliant today as when it was released.
more
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It was already dark but the square glowed with marquee brilliance, and none more brilliant than the Empire's.
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From 1918 to 1923 there are four more brilliant fireballs over rural areas on land.
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Thus a man can make his love more and more brilliant throughout life.
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My eyes have to adjust to a more brilliant light.
most
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The mass effect was of a light but most brilliant ultramarine.
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The most brilliant societies and civilizations, however, presuppose within their own borders cultures and societies of a more elementary kind.
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But he was the most brilliant strategist and politician that Athens ever had.
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Arguably he was one of the most brilliant athletes, white or black, ever to play baseball.
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He was widely regarded as having one of the most brilliant minds in the Royal Navy.
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I knew her when she was at her most brilliant .
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These qualities spring forth in every area of the movie and find their most brilliant focus in De Niro's performance.
quite
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Aunt Hortense: They certainly do Bertie, they're quite , quite brilliant !
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He studied philosophy and religion and by all accounts was quite brilliant .
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The lighting had been quite brilliant .
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Unless they are quite brilliant , jokes are best avoided in essays.
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It was then that King Richard came up with a quite brilliant solution.
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In fact he was quite brilliant and promoted almost at once.
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I think the way in which they organize that side of things is quite brilliant .
so
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But it's not so brilliant for any shareholders who sold at the float price.
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The great Trojan champion had never before shown himself so brilliant and so brave.
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My brilliant plan was not so brilliant after all.
■ NOUN
career
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It's Jan's brilliant career that's the problem.
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His brilliant career as attorney lifted him into prominence and gave him acceptance as spokesman for the untouchables.
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Throughout his brilliant career with Airdrie, Newcastle, Chelsea and Derby, controversy followed his every move.
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In 1921 Maitland's previously brilliant career ended in misfortune and tragedy.
colours
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The brilliant colours make even the glossiest illustration seem dull by comparison.
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How it hurt, as their brilliant colours dried in the light.
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Music Voice over Many cottage gardeners avoid brilliant colours , fearing they look too gaudy.
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Art Deco has come to mean brilliant colours , curved upholstery and angular, geometric designs.
flash
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Then, when it is all over ... Out of the darkness there came a single brilliant flash .
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Over 20, 000 residents are awakened by a brilliant flash of light and heat to find their city in flames.
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The brilliant flash of wing colours in the Butterfly House are alone worth a visit.
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The water poured off the roofs in torrents, and thunderstorms rent the night skies with brilliant flashes of lightning.
idea
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Then Pat and George had a brilliant idea .
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When I awoke, though, I had a brilliant idea .
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But interspersed with these brilliant ideas have come some terrible errors.
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Last year, I had what in all due modesty I shall call a brilliant idea .
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Their keen intellects and powerful personalities could spark off more than just brilliant ideas at times.
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Many experts, however, reckoned they had the germ of a brilliant idea .
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Nixon had some brilliant ideas , but he did not build the constituency necessary to carry them out.
light
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As I climb, I think of the butterflies, the dreams of the holy men, fluttering in a brilliant light .
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And then there was a brilliant light and the Beast turned into a handsome prince.
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Beams of brilliant light jerked across the far wall and, slowly, the bars began to char.
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It casts a brilliant light on everyone around him.
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And, as their pressure increased, Laura felt a brilliant light seeming to explode in both her mind and body.
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Robert could see the brilliant light flooding the Bloomsbury street outside.
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My eyes have to adjust to a more brilliant light .
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I wore my dark glasses even for these few moments, as my blue eyes were always straining in the brilliant light .
man
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For a brilliant man , you can be very naïve.
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By 1922 the team of brilliant men who had governed for the past six years could not but see themselves as irreplaceable.
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He was a classical example of a brilliant man , an academic, who lacked commonsense and elementary manners.
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In short, he was a brilliant man of contradictions.
mind
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He was widely regarded as having one of the most brilliant minds in the Royal Navy.
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It came to me that this was a defining moment in the relationship between these two brilliant minds .
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You forget the political pressures and relax in the company of brilliant minds .
performance
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He turned in a brilliant performance when guiding his four to a 26-but it was defeat on the remaining three rinks.
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Snipes gives a brilliant performance as a man caught in a moral dilemma.
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This was a game which, once again, produced a brilliant performance from 82 year-old George Mitchell.
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As their brilliant performance in the Gulf War later demonstrated so vividly, our new management system corrected that vexing problem.
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Keith Richardson says it was a brilliant performance and they were helped by the tremendous support from the Gloucester fans.
smile
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He greeted them both with exaggerated gesturing and a brilliant smile which augured well for the next twenty-one days.
student
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They were led by a suave and brilliant student called Granville Sharpe-Pattison.
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His true love, a brilliant student named Adrienne, died in her youth when she was struck by a car.
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After a brilliant student career at the Sorbonne he was called to the Paris Bar in 1926.
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Roderick, from Rowlands Gill, County Durham, was described as a brilliant student with a great future.
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They follow an all night drink and drugs party at which a brilliant student died.
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Read in studio An inquest has opened on a brilliant student found hanging in her room at an Oxford college.
success
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If the former, then the decision, after a nerve-testing time-lag, was a brilliant success .
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The concerto was a brilliant success for Barber and Browning.
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He is in the winter of his years: august, sophisticated, clearly a brilliant success .
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Since then Milton Keynes has been called a brilliant success , and a place with no heart or soul.
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Some are already in use, and have achieved brilliant success .
sunshine
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The brilliant sunshine seemed to be mocking her.
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When I left the Trowbridge house, I stood still, blinking in the brilliant sunshine .
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Flanked by the two men, they walked down a wide marble staircase, and out into the brilliant sunshine .
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But money and the recession were forgotten as I skied in the brilliant sunshine of Obergurgl just a few days before Christmas.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"How was your trip?" "Absolutely brilliant !"
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brilliant red and yellow flowers
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a brilliant blue sky
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a brilliant historian
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a brilliant idea
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a brilliant scientist
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a long and brilliant career
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A shaft of brilliant sunlight shone through the dusty attic window.
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After a brilliant career at St Luke's Hospital she was given her own department.
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All of a sudden the stage was flooded with brilliant light.
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Have you seen her dance? She's absolutely brilliant .
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Joanna came up with a brilliant idea for a new book.
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Michael Horden gave a brilliant performance as King Lear.
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Paganini was a brilliant violinist, famous for his technical skill in both playing and composing music.
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She's brilliant at handling difficult clients.
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Suddenly, I looked up and saw a point of light that was more brilliant than any star I had ever seen.
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the brilliant lights of the stadium
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The brilliant physicist Paul Dirac first put forward this theory back in 1990.
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The decision to reorganize the company was a brilliant success.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A brilliant mathematician and a natural-born bomb-maker.
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Being their son must have meant living constantly in the shadow of two brilliant luminaries.
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Best gross went to Eamon McCaul whose 74 was a brilliant effort in a difficult cross wind.
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Call it foolhardy or brilliant or shocking or crazy.
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Fans of the novel claim that its stomach-turning violence is a brilliant metaphor for the 1980s culture of consumerism and self-gratification.
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His true love, a brilliant student named Adrienne, died in her youth when she was struck by a car.
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Richard Perle was a brilliant , brooding defense expert with strongly neoconservative leanings.
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The new series kicks off with brilliant action shots taken at SummerSlam, the record breaking Wembley event.