limn
Americanverb (used with object)
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to represent in drawing or painting.
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to portray in words; describe.
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Obsolete. to illuminate (manuscripts).
verb
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to represent in drawing or painting
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archaic to describe in words
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an obsolete word for illuminate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of limn
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English lymne, variant of Middle English luminen “to illuminate (manuscripts),” variant of enlumine, from Middle French enluminer, from Latin inlūmināre “to embellish,” literally, “light up”; see illuminate
Explanation
Limn is a verb that means "to represent" or "portray." It is most often used to describe the act of drawing or painting a portrait, but it can also refer to describing or outlining a scene or event. The verb limn evolved from the Latin lumināre, "to illuminate." The word referred originally to coloring (illuminating) manuscripts. The sense of "portray" or "depict" did not come into use until the late 16th century, but that meaning is close to the original, since someone who paints a portrait usually illuminates something about the subject's character. The word is less often used of written description, as in "Her reviews tended to limn the worst aspects of the performance, ignoring the best."
Vocabulary lists containing limn
Ophelia
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As You Like It
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Martin Eden
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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.
Who better to help us limn out these feelings of disgust, rage and desolation right now?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2025
Such moments of insight and empathy limn Darraj’s novel, shining through the sadness and tension of her characters’ lives.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Telgemeier is not, in a book aimed at third to eighth graders, out to solve the mystery of this rise or limn its sociological roots.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2019
For Jentleson and his colleagues, part of the work of the Moscow Project is to limn a possible conspiracy without falling into conspiracy theorizing.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2017
Cristiana could also limn with skill, painting lifelike birds and flowers and faces I could recognize as those of Gertrude and her ladies.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
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.
