shine
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
shynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʃaɪn
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.
verb
Emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light
intransitivecopulative
To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
Be bright by reflecting or casting light
intransitivecopulative
To distinguish oneself; to excel.
transitive
To cause (something) to be smooth and shiny by rubbing; put a shine on (something); polish (something).
transitive
To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).
noun
Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
Brightness from a source of light.
Brightness from reflected light.
Sunshine (typically in contrast with rain).
Shoeshine.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Emit light; be bright, as of the sun or a light
Used this way, shine 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.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The work of making something smooth and shiny by rubbing or waxing it.
A swollen bruise caused by a blow to the eye.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Having a shiny surface or coating.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Common North American shrub with shiny lanceolate leaves.
Be good at.
Ingratiate oneself to.
A variety of club moss.
A terrorist group formed in Peru in the late 1960s as a splinter group from the communist party of Peru.
Common nonpoisonous shrub of eastern North America with compound leaves and green paniculate flowers followed by red berries.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Small deciduous tree of eastern and central United States having leaves that shine like laurel.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “shine” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.