illuminate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to supply or brighten with light; light up.
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to make lucid or clear; throw light on (a subject).
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to decorate with lights, as in celebration.
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to enlighten, as with knowledge.
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to make resplendent or illustrious.
A smile illuminated her face.
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to decorate (a manuscript, book, etc.) with colors and gold or silver, as was often done in the Middle Ages.
verb (used without object)
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to display lights, as in celebration.
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to become illuminated.
adjective
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Archaic. illuminated.
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Obsolete. enlightened.
noun
verb
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(tr) to throw light in or into; light up
to illuminate a room
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(tr) to make easily understood; clarify
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to adorn, decorate, or be decorated with lights
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(tr) to decorate (a letter, page, etc) by the application of colours, gold, or silver
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(intr) to become lighted up
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- illuminatingly adverb
- illuminative adjective
- illuminator noun
- preilluminate verb (used with object)
- reilluminate verb
- semi-illuminated adjective
- unilluminated adjective
Etymology
Origin of illuminate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin illūminātus, past participle of illūmināre “to light up, brighten”; illumine ( def. ), -ate 1 ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
These events aren’t illuminating and feel instead like a bleak betrayal.
From Los Angeles Times
But the trip to the Big Apple also illuminated another path for Moreno.
From Los Angeles Times
With precision and care, the author elegantly chronicles his own shame, envy, boredom, regret and despair, illuminating his experiences with insights from philosophy, psychology, ethnography and history.
Only a faint glow of moonlight spilled through the window, illuminating my bed and the spinning wheel.
From Literature
Featuring illuminated eyes in the film, and with original wiring in the right socket, this particular C-3PO head boasts several unique features including a forehead antenna.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
