illuminate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
illuminates,
present (3rd person singular)
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illuminated,
past participle, past
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illuminating
present participle
-
to supply or brighten with light; light up.
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to make lucid or clear; throw light on (a subject).
-
to decorate with lights, as in celebration.
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to enlighten, as with knowledge.
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to make resplendent or illustrious.
A smile illuminated her face.
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to decorate (a manuscript, book, etc.) with colors and gold or silver, as was often done in the Middle Ages.
verb (used without object)
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illuminates,
present (3rd person singular)
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illuminated,
past participle, past
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illuminating
present participle
-
to display lights, as in celebration.
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to become illuminated.
adjective
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Archaic. illuminated.
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Obsolete. enlightened.
noun
verb
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(tr) to throw light in or into; light up
to illuminate a room
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(tr) to make easily understood; clarify
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to adorn, decorate, or be decorated with lights
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(tr) to decorate (a letter, page, etc) by the application of colours, gold, or silver
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(intr) to become lighted up
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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illuminatornoun
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reilluminateverb
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preilluminateverb (used with object)
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illuminativeadjective
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semi-illuminatedadjective
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unilluminatedadjective
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illuminatinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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illuminatesimple
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illuminatessimple
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have illuminatedperfect
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has illuminatedperfect
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am illuminatingprogressive
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are illuminatingprogressive
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is illuminatingprogressive
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have been illuminatingperfect progressive
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has been illuminatingperfect progressive
Past
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illuminatedsimple
-
had illuminatedperfect
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was illuminatingprogressive
-
were illuminatingprogressive
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had been illuminatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of illuminate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin illūminātus, past participle of illūmināre “to light up, brighten”; see illumine ( def. ), -ate 1 ( def. )
Explanation
To illuminate is to light up — with physical light or with an idea. A spotlight might illuminate an actor on stage, and a good chemistry teacher might illuminate students with a lesson on the atomic structure of hydrogen. Originally, the verb illuminate referred to decorating handwritten manuscripts with bright lettering or pictures. Monks illuminated manuscripts with colors like gold, silver, bright red, and blue. Nowadays you can illuminate anything in the dark — either literally or figuratively. If you are afraid of the dark, illuminate your bedroom. In the dark when it comes to organic chemistry? Get an illuminating tutor.
Vocabulary lists containing illuminate
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Let There Be Light: Lum and Luc
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 4
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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:
It may also illuminate some of the ancient chemical steps that eventually contributed to the emergence of life on Earth.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
They play with perspective, color, space and time to illuminate postwar American tensions, be they racial, political or existential.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
“The End of Everything” transforms what could be a grim subject into a playful exploration of how science can be used to illuminate even the most distant possible future.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
May's full Moon is set to illuminate the night sky on Friday 1 May.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
Without a moon, they see only what the insectile headlamps illuminate: fifteen feet of granular, ice-blue surface, crisscrossed by tire tracks.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
It’s worth thinking about because it illuminates the principles that we should be applying to questions of governance in this country.
From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026
As the afternoon sunshine pours in through a stained-glass window, it illuminates a century-old design of a man dribbling a football across a pitch.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
While we’re on the topic of Brin and Lake Tahoe, let me share another early anecdote that illuminates the mindset I’m referring to, and that I wrote about way back in 1999.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026
Writer Douglas Kearney illuminates it strikingly in the curatorial statement etched into a back wall in “sister dreamer”: “… it’s the sacred phenomenon of luxe space that remembers without memorializing, celebrates without eulogizing. An anti-tomb.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
In the deepening twilight, the firelight illuminates our faces.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
The eatery features Midcentury Modern touches with curved cherry wood walls and paneled ceilings, as well as illuminated white onyx Corian surfaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Through a telescope, the planet will look almost half illuminated, resembling a miniature lunar phase.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
The July full Moon, also known as the Buck Moon, illuminated the sky over the UK on Wednesday night.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
We went around the long dinner table, illuminated by a fireplace, and read what we’d scribbled.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
I reached toward the intertwined branches, their leaves illuminated by the golden hue of the evening sun.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Rainbows of light stream through both transparent and stained-glass windows, illuminating the cavernous space.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
These are often bound up under one general heading of "polarisation", but it's been illuminating to unpack them.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
It can be a tedious but illuminating chore that will help you become more aware of where your money is going.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
But the film’s screenplay — a biting, laugh-a-minute wonder penned by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack — shrewdly plays with genre conventions and audience expectations, illuminating more depth with every other sentence.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
Ethel was livid, then despairing—George acted as Donald’s executor, illuminating Martin’s secret inheritance.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
