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twinkling

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

A very short time.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

twingkuhling

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtwɪŋkəlɪŋ

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.

noun

  1. A very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat)

  2. A very short period, notionally the time it takes to blink the eyes.

  3. A shining with fast intermittent light.

adjective

  1. Sparkling intermittently.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient
Frequency
Rare
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat)

Used this way, twinkling 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
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
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.

Short

eyes twinkling

Shining

twinkling lights

Other combinations

twinkling bluetwinkling startwinkling likesmall twinkling

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • instant

    A very short time (as the time it takes the eye to blink or the heart to beat).

  • flash

    A very short amount of time.

  • trice

    Now only in the phrase in a trice: a very short time.

  • wink

    An act of winking (a blinking of only one eye), or a message sent by winking.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • twinkleverbBase word

    Gleam or glow intermittently.

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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.