highlighter
Americannoun
-
a felt-tip pen with a wide nib for highlighting passages of printed material in a soft, transparent color.
-
a cosmetic powder or cream applied to the face in places where light would naturally hit, as the cheeks, forehead, chin, and center of the nose, to create a glowing effect.
noun
-
a cosmetic cream or powder applied to the face to highlight the cheekbones, eyes, etc
-
a fluorescent felt-tip pen used as a marker to emphasize a section of text without obscuring it
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of highlighter
First recorded in 1965–70; highlight + -er 1 ( def. )
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:
This is the afterglow of a celebration, the vibrant hues—caution-tape yellow and highlighter green—testifying to a party, the exhausted forms evidence of its raucousness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
I grabbed a highlighter from the bottom of my bag and began sketching a little illustration of the soup, coloring in the carrot chunks with bright orange.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 2025
Santos recommends an Estée Lauder foundation and for Gaetz to avoid highlighter altogether.
From Slate ● Jan. 12, 2025
Overcome by a “huge wave of inspiration”, she now says, she pulled out her mini Jack Wills diary and wrote in pink highlighter:
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2024
On each map, I colored over a different set of streets in the neighborhood with a highlighter.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
“In the old days, which was a year ago…you’d print out the statements of the town Visa card, Mastercard, and you would hand out a box of highlighters and go to work.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
To get a sense of whether you’re spending your money meaningfully, Agnew suggests we review monthly spending with highlighters in three different colors.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 21, 2025
Jenner swiftly expanded her brand’s reach, introducing an eye shadow palette in 2016, highlighters in 2017 and so on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
Each high school kit contained a large, three-ring binder, eight spiral-bound and two composition notebooks, two 12-packs of yellow pencils, a pack of highlighters, two packs of black ink pens and a set of earbuds.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2022
But I like the idea of getting highlighters.
From "Free Lunch" by Rex Ogle
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.
