To elate means to fill someone with intense happiness and excitement, making them feel wonderfully uplifted and joyful. When you're elated, you feel like you could float off the ground with happiness.

Think of finding out you made the team after weeks of tryouts, or learning your science project won first place at the fair. That surge of pure joy and excitement? That's what it means to be elated. Your parents might feel elated when they hear you got the lead role in the school play. A scientist could feel elated discovering something important after years of research.

The word suggests more than just feeling happy or pleased. Being elated means experiencing a powerful rush of joy that lifts your whole mood and makes everything seem brighter. It's that walking-on-air feeling after something wonderful happens.

The related noun is elation, which describes that feeling itself: “The whole stadium erupted in elation when the team scored the winning goal.” When good news elates you, it doesn't just make you smile. It makes you want to jump up and celebrate.