- present participle of gleam.
gleaming
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gleaming
Explanation
Teeth in toothpaste commercials are gleaming. They sparkle when the light hits. When you see this word, think of a bright reflected ray of light, on teeth, on water, or in someone's smiling eyes. A new skyscraper that reflects light might also be described as gleaming. If you are excited to move to a new place, someone might say that your eyes are gleaming with excitement, especially as you view the gleaming wood floors and gleaming freshly-washed windows of your new home. The word has a clean, glittering, sparkly feel to it.
Vocabulary lists containing gleaming
A Long Walk to Water
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The Star-Spangled Banner
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Brown Girl Dreaming
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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.
But South Korea's heatwave has made it uninhabitable, forcing him to seek refuge under a makeshift tarp just a stone’s throw from Gangnam’s gleaming skyscrapers, where the wealthy remain cool in their aloof abodes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026
Each of the five judges read all the submitted books, with Beard joking she "occasionally felt daunted as a new box of 30 or so gleaming volumes landed on my doorstep".
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Trout, their speckled flanks gleaming in the sun, gulped them down one by one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Another massive piece, “Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE,” resurrects the medieval city of Kumbi Saleh, the capital of the ancient Ghanaian empire, as a gleaming, futuristic hub.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
He’d imagined piles of precious, gleaming jewels or shiny gold coins.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
