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glimmer

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Shine brightly, like a star or a light.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

glimer

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡlɪmɚ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Shine brightly, like a star or a light

  2. intransitive

    To shine with a faint, unsteady light.

noun

  1. A faint light; a dim glow.

  2. A flash of light (especially reflected light)

  3. A faint or remote possibility (as it were a flash of light).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Shine brightly, like a star or a light

Used this way, glimmer is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

glimmer throughpale glimmer

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: shine brightly or like a star or a light

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.