illumine
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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illumines,
present (3rd person singular)
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illumined,
past participle, past
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illumining
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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illuminesimple
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illuminessimple
-
have illuminedperfect
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has illuminedperfect
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am illuminingprogressive
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are illuminingprogressive
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is illuminingprogressive
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have been illuminingperfect progressive
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has been illuminingperfect progressive
Past
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illuminedsimple
-
had illuminedperfect
-
was illuminingprogressive
-
were illuminingprogressive
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had been illuminingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of illumine
1300–50; Middle English illuminen < Latin illūmināre to light up, equivalent to il- il- 1 + lūmin- (stem of lūmen ) light + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive suffix
Explanation
To illumine is to shine a light on something, literally or figuratively. Your desk lamp might illumine the page of your book, while the words you're reading illumine your mind. This literary term is a more poetic way of saying "illuminate," though its original meaning was the figurative "enlighten spiritually." It's a graceful verb to use when you're talking about light that shines or glows: "The dancing candlelight cheerfully illumines the dim room." It's also useful for describing ideas that spark an intellectual or spiritual understanding: "It's the first time I've read philosophy that truly illumines my perception."
Vocabulary lists containing illumine
Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 4
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Selection Vocabulary 5, Unit 3
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luc, lum, lus (light), List 1
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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.
See Examples For:
“She is the one of course that I am trying to get. … To mark her off, to describe, to illumine, to celebrate, to get rid of her.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024
Those “if”s, those two counterfactuals, help illumine the precise borders of the crime.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 17, 2019
But Ms. Fairchild’s social media post guides us to the gold at its heart: Ms. McBride brings “nuggets of wisdom” about what Balanchine said that illumine a ballet that Ms. Fairchild has already loved dancing.
From New York Times ● Feb. 13, 2018
Adjectives are where the elves of language both cheat and illumine reality.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2014
He was holding the lamp high up, so as to illumine the whole room, and in the warm dim light the place looked curiously inviting.
From "1984" by George Orwell
The lighting illumines each river in brilliantly bright backdrop colors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
It illumines the lives of several remarkable people who made the changes happen.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2022
In the case of Arp, a revolutionary figure in modernism’s movements of abstraction, Dadaism and Surrealism, this complementary group show illumines just how foundational and remarkably inimitable Arp’s abstractions really are.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2018
The fading light of dusk illumines an abandoned building in Terra Amarilla, New Mexico.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 31, 2015
How can I make you see it, this strange harsh light which pervades Homer’s landscapes and illumines the dialogues of Plato, an alien light, inarticulable in our common tongue?
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
The fog of war obscures even the most illumined conscience.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 14, 2023
The Bowl shell illumined in a compelling midnight blue during a sunset for the evening’s opening dance was a sight to behold.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
“Every sentence has a graceful weight and meter and is illumined by a subtle intelligence that makes his descriptions arresting but never showy.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2022
His life was illumined by a series of extraordinary spiritual visions.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2017
Gold leaf illumined the capitals and the delicate tracery which bordered the pages.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
Most writers were unable to see life whole, and unsatisfied with illumining only fragments of it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Around and above, save in the plantation which surrounds the house, is the soft green light of the paradisal woodland illumining its incredible wealth of leafage, fruit, and flowers.
From A Modern Buccaneer by Rolf Boldrewood
He rose slowly and stiffly to his knees and looked down the ridge to where the rays of the sun now were illumining the snow-covered bottom of the valley below.
From The Snow-Burner by Henry Oyen
She raised her eyes to his, and, once more, saw that bright illumining, more radiant now and more significant than she had ever seen it yet.
From Success and How He Won It by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner
The smoky rays of the sinking tropical sun shot in through the open doorway, illumining the gloomy interior.
From The Red Derelict by Bertram Mitford
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.
