highlighter

American  

[hahy-lahy-ter] / ˈhaɪˌlaɪ tər /

noun

• highlighters
  plural

1. a felt-tip pen with a wide nib for highlighting passages of printed material in a soft, transparent color.

2. 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.

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highlighter British  

/ ˈhaɪˌlaɪtə /

noun

1. a cosmetic cream or powder applied to the face to highlight the cheekbones, eyes, etc

2. a fluorescent felt-tip pen used as a marker to emphasize a section of text without obscuring it

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• highlighters
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of highlighter

First recorded in 1965–70; highlight + -er ¹ ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

highlighter highlighters

Receiver Davante Adams made several acrobatic catches befitting of the retina-burning yellow “Classic Sol” jerseys that turned the Rams into human highlighter pens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

“They’ve had a curated set of items that they’ve gone after, so whether that be in blushes or in lips or in highlighter or bronzing categories, they’re seeing strength across the board,” Fields said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 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

I keep looking at Sahil and he keeps looking at me and our hands have brushed a thousand times as we both reach for the same pencil or highlighter.

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

All we lost out on were some Royal Caribbean highlighters, anyway.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 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

Writing tools and supplies — including crayons, highlighters, pens, and pencils — have increased an average of 18.5% in the last 10 months.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 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

I put away two novels, my pencil case, and my calculator and highlighters.

From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison

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