lightning
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lytningSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlaɪtnɪŋ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
The flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more
A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
A discharge of this kind.
figuratively
Anything that moves very fast.
adjective
Extremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
Used this way, lightning is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Sudden and forceful
- Usage feel
- Blunt and forceful
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use lightning
- “A bright flash of lightning illuminated the entire stormy sky.”
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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.