The giddy, exhilarating rush.
The giddy, exhilarating rush — butterflies, tingling, flushed elation — caused by an exciting or, most characteristically, a romantic moment.
Names the acute felt sensation of a romantic high point (a glance, a confession, a hand-hold), not a sustained attachment or sexual desire — “kilig is not yet love.” Unlike anxious nervousness it is pleasurable and excited, and it is notably vicarious: one can feel kilig watching a couple on screen.
“shudder, thrill, tingle”; closest English idiom “tickled pink.”
A borrowing from Tagalog kilig; a native root word.
Added to the Oxford English Dictionary in the March 2016 update (alongside “teleserye”), with earliest English evidence dated to 1981. (It is sometimes wrongly reported as a 2025 addition — that refers to a routine revision, not its inclusion.)
Often loosely equated with “butterflies”/limerence; sources caution it is the momentary thrill, not the relationship state.