8 More Exciting Ways To Say You’re Excited

The word “excited” is English’s go-to word to convey energy, enthusiasm, or eagerness. It first appeared in the 1650s in a physical sense, meaning “magnetically or electrically stimulated,” and eventually earned its modern emotional sense 200 years later. While “excited” is firmly cemented in the lexicon, there are plenty of other ways to express that feeling. Among the most practical synonyms for mild enthusiasm are “interested,” “eager,” and “looking forward to.” To show more intense emotion, you might use “thrilled,” “delighted,” “energized,” “elated,” “overjoyed,” or “ecstatic.”

These practical replacements deserve a spot in your repertoire, but there are even more unusual ways to convey excitement. For instance, you might channel 1960s California surf culture and use “stoked” while talking to a friend, or follow the Brits’ lead and say “buzzing” when you’re vibrating with happy energy. Here are some less common but more colorful ways to say you’re excited.

More formal and emotionally intense than “excited,” “fervent” is a good stand-in when the context calls for deeply felt enthusiasm or passion: “The audience gave a fervent response to the speech.” The word suggests not just excitement, but also devotion or wholeheartedness. It comes from the Latin ferventem, meaning “boiling, hot, glowing,” and retains this secondary meaning today for “very hot,” as in, “The fervent coals glowed all night.”

“Over the moon” is originally a British idiom. It conveys excitement, with undertones of being overly happy or delighted, as in, “We are over the moon about Katie’s acceptance to college.” Some sources cite the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” as the origin for the expression: “Hey diddle, diddle, / The Cat and the Fiddle, / The Cow jump’d over the Moon.” The rhyme dates back to at least the 16th century in oral tradition, and the idiom was used separately from the verse beginning in the early 18th century. It appeared in a novel by Charles Molly in 1718: “Tis he! I know him now: I shall jump over the Moon for Joy!”

If you’re ready to get something done, you might say you’re “raring to go.” This underutilized term conveys eagerness and enthusiasm. It comes from the verb “rare,” a dialectal variant of “rear” meaning “rise on the hind legs.” A horse at the starting line, for example, will rare in excitement. This usage related to horses and other animals appeared in the 1830s. “Raring to go” — in the sense of eagerness — was first recorded in 1909. 

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, you may recognize this term from one of Mr. Darcy’s most famous lines: “I love you. Most ardently.” Here, the word conveys passion. It isn’t limited to romantic contexts, though. “Ardent” can also convey excitement and eagerness with an added sense of warmth or admiration, as in, “The concert was full of ardent fans.”

This idiom conveys restless impatience or extreme eagerness: “They were champing at the bit for the sequel to be released.” The saying comes from horse racing, where “champ” means “to bite,” as racehorses do on the bits in their mouths. “Chomping at the bit” is a popular variant of this saying, and although the meaning remains the same (because “chomp” is a synonym for “champ”), “champing” is the original and preferred term according to style guides and dictionaries.

“Zeal” means “eagerness and enthusiastic interest in pursuit of something,” especially a cause, goal, or activity: “She showed great zeal in her hobbies.” You might also say, “The interns were zealous in their efforts to impress management.” While the adjective form isn’t always a direct substitute for “excited” — you probably wouldn’t say, “I’m zealous about tonight’s concert” — it works well when the enthusiasm is directed toward a goal or outcome.

“Agog” means “full of intense interest or excitement,” as in, “Everyone was agog over the fireworks display.” It’s often followed by a preposition, such as “over” or “about.” It likely stems from the Middle French phrase en gogues, meaning “in a state of mirth” (“gladness or gaiety as shown by or accompanied with laughter”). “Agog” has been used in English for more than 450 years and can also be a synonym for “astonished” or “agape,” as in, “They stood with their mouths agog.”

“The team is gung ho about starting the new project.” This adjective describes extreme enthusiasm. “Gung ho” was adopted into U.S. slang during the 1940s, but it comes from the Chinese term “kung ho,” meaning “work together” or “cooperate.” It was notably the motto of Carlson’s Raiders, a Marine battalion that operated in the Pacific during World War II.