illumine
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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illuminesimple
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illuminessimple
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have illuminedperfect
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has illuminedperfect
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am illuminingprogressive
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are illuminingprogressive
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is illuminingprogressive
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have been illuminingperfect progressive
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has been illuminingperfect progressive
Past
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illuminedsimple
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had illuminedperfect
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was illuminingprogressive
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were illuminingprogressive
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had been illuminingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of illumine
1300–50; Middle English illuminen < Latin illūmināre to light up, equivalent to il- il- 1 + lūmin- (stem of lūmen ) light + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive suffix
Explanation
To illumine is to shine a light on something, literally or figuratively. Your desk lamp might illumine the page of your book, while the words you're reading illumine your mind. This literary term is a more poetic way of saying "illuminate," though its original meaning was the figurative "enlighten spiritually." It's a graceful verb to use when you're talking about light that shines or glows: "The dancing candlelight cheerfully illumines the dim room." It's also useful for describing ideas that spark an intellectual or spiritual understanding: "It's the first time I've read philosophy that truly illumines my perception."
Vocabulary lists containing illumine
Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 4
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Part 2 Vocabulary (Unit 3)
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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:
“She is the one of course that I am trying to get. … To mark her off, to describe, to illumine, to celebrate, to get rid of her.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024
Those “if”s, those two counterfactuals, help illumine the precise borders of the crime.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 17, 2019
It’s not quite the case that the people Faye meets illumine various facets of Faye herself—she remains a cipher, however much we might want to speculate about her.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2017
One 1721 image here shows a providential eye peering through the clouds of a storm, beams of light streaming downward to illumine an embattled ship.
From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2010
He was holding the lamp high up, so as to illumine the whole room, and in the warm dim light the place looked curiously inviting.
From "1984" by George Orwell
The lighting illumines each river in brilliantly bright backdrop colors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
It illumines the lives of several remarkable people who made the changes happen.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2022
In the case of Arp, a revolutionary figure in modernism’s movements of abstraction, Dadaism and Surrealism, this complementary group show illumines just how foundational and remarkably inimitable Arp’s abstractions really are.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2018
Foa’s comment illumines a vast gray area in the trigger warning debate.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2016
How can I make you see it, this strange harsh light which pervades Homer’s landscapes and illumines the dialogues of Plato, an alien light, inarticulable in our common tongue?
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
The fog of war obscures even the most illumined conscience.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 14, 2023
The Bowl shell illumined in a compelling midnight blue during a sunset for the evening’s opening dance was a sight to behold.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
“Every sentence has a graceful weight and meter and is illumined by a subtle intelligence that makes his descriptions arresting but never showy.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2022
His life was illumined by a series of extraordinary spiritual visions.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2017
The library was like a tomb, illumined from within by a chill fluorescent light that, by contrast, made the afternoon seem colder and grayer than it was.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Most writers were unable to see life whole, and unsatisfied with illumining only fragments of it.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then Jack came out of hiding, and strode forward without further qualms, for the flame was lighting the cigar and illumining the face of his friend Dalrymple.
From My Lord Duke by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)
From the ceiling fell a rosy radiance, soft, tender, and faint, vaguely illumining the tapestries with which the walls were draped, upon which were represented rare subjects derived from Boccaccio.
From Garrick's Pupil by Filon, Auguston
She raised her eyes to his, and, once more, saw that bright illumining, more radiant now and more significant than she had ever seen it yet.
From Success and How He Won It by Werner, E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers)
His whole appearance was decidedly ordinary, not to say vulgar, and even the unconcealed triumph now illumining his countenance could set no other impress on it.
From Success and How He Won It by Werner, E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers)
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.
