glimmer
Americannoun
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glimmers
plural
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a faint or unsteady light; gleam.
-
a dim perception; inkling.
verb (used without object)
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glimmers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
glimmered,
past participle, past
-
glimmering
present participle
-
to shine faintly or unsteadily; twinkle, shimmer, or flicker.
-
to appear faintly or dimly.
verb
-
(of a light, candle, etc) to glow faintly or flickeringly
-
to be indicated faintly
hope glimmered in his face
noun
-
a glow or twinkle of light
-
a faint indication
Synonym Usage
See gleam.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
glimmersimple
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glimmerssimple
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have glimmeredperfect
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has glimmeredperfect
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am glimmeringprogressive
-
are glimmeringprogressive
-
is glimmeringprogressive
-
have been glimmeringperfect progressive
-
has been glimmeringperfect progressive
Past
-
glimmeredsimple
-
had glimmeredperfect
-
was glimmeringprogressive
-
were glimmeringprogressive
-
had been glimmeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of glimmer
1300–50; Middle English glimeren “to gleam”; cognate with German glimmern; compare Old English gleomu “splendor”
Explanation
A glimmer is a tiny glint of light or the sliver of an idea. Either way, it's a sign of a lot more going on behind the scenes. A glimmer of light is just a little bit of light, maybe sneaking through the curtains enough to make a flicker on the floor. A glimmer of an idea is just a small inkling of an idea. When someone doesn't understand something, you could make them feel worse by saying, "You don't have a glimmer of what I'm talking about, do you?" When it comes to light, you can also say light is glimmering, or gleaming. People often say stars are glimmering.
Vocabulary lists containing glimmer
"Harrison Bergeron"
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"Of Mice and Men"
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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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:
The first glimmer of our AI future revealed itself a decade ago in the form of a single black stone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
There’s a glimmer of good news in the story of Americans’ whopping credit-card bill.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
News crews, Venezuelan officials and nearby residents were drawn to a remarkable scene that offered a glimmer of hope amid the country’s otherwise dystopian tableau.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026
Powerful scores from Ellis Genge and George Martin, just before half-time, ignited a glimmer of hope for England.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
At this glimmer of the real Mom, my eyes sting and I hurriedly wipe them with the back of my hand.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
For those of us who actually do like crepes, though, there are some glimmers of hope.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
"We have seen one or two weaknesses, glimmers, no more than that," said Nevin.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
"The humanitarian situation here is desperate, but there are faint glimmers of hope," Guterres wrote in the post on X. "We must stand with Haiti."
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
This “Farm” isn’t lacking for good intentions and, in spots, as with Woody Harrelson’s fine casting as the naïve, loyal horse Boxer, one can see glimmers of what a good adaptation might have been.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
But so far today, she’d only ever gotten glimmers of seeing her father as he truly was.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Beats hummed, lights glimmered and about 200 young men and women traded emerald-green tiles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
In a small village further up the beach, Christmas lights glimmered in the dark.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2023
At night, they glimmered across the water: Twenty-five thousand tiny LEDs, stretching 1.8 miles across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Oakland.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2023
Sheer mermaid gowns and dresses with sinuous three-dimensional florets glimmered with paillettes and tulle.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2023
When she was satisfied that she still remembered how to do it, she sharpened the steel on a whetstone until its edge glimmered silver- blue in the candlelight.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
But “Ankhmerwer”—gorgeously inscribed and illustrated and sprinkled with glimmering gold shrines, crowns, birds, gods and sun disks—rewards close looking and empathetic eyes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
In the closing shot, the words "we belong together" appeared over a sea of bodies dancing beneath glimmering lights at the show.
From BBC ● Jan. 15, 2026
Antonio Obá’s painting of a monk-like horseman at Mendes Wood DM, his copper-hued cloak glimmering under a turquoise sky while his gaze pierces the viewer, is a small master class in paint-handling and color theory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 2025
The film continually pushes up against almost being a glimmering rom-com that celebrates wealth and privilege but instead becomes a series of tough conversations on the place of love, money and relationships in contemporary life.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2025
That river, that chalk quarry, that estuary in the glimmering night—familiar landmarks.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
