illuminate
Plural: illuminates
Verb
- make lighter or brighter
- make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear
- add embellishments and paintings to (medieval manuscripts)
- To shine light on something.
- To decorate something with lights.
- To clarify or make something understandable.
- To decorate the page of a manuscript book with ornamental designs.
- To make spectacular.
- To glow; to light up.
- To be exposed to light.
- To direct a radar beam toward.
Adj
- Enlightened, illuminated, made bright.
- Enlightened spiritually, divinely taught or inspired; in technical use, converted, baptized.
- Learned, erudite.
Noun
- Someone thought to have an unusual degree of enlightenment.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English illuminaten, borrowed from Latin illūminātus, perfect passive participle of illūminō (“lighten, light up, show off”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more), from in + lūminō (“light up”), from lūmen (“light”). Cognate with Old English lȳman (“to glow, shine”). More at leam.
Synonyms
clear, clear up, crystalise, crystalize, crystallise, crystallize, elucidate, enlighten, illume, illumine, light, light up, shed light on, sort out, straighten out, alight, belight, beshine, bright, bring home, clarify, explicitize, fire, gleam, illuminate, illustrate, irradiate, lighten, luster, lustrate, quill, shine
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 12
illuminate: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordilluminate: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
illuminate: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary