scintillate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to emit sparks.
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to sparkle; flash.
a mind that scintillates with brilliance.
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to twinkle, as the stars.
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Electronics. (of a spot of light or image on a radar display) to shift rapidly around a mean position.
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Physics.
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(of the amplitude, phase, or polarization of an electromagnetic wave) to fluctuate in a random manner.
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(of an energetic photon or particle) to produce a flash of light in a phosphor by striking it.
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verb (used with object)
verb
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(also tr) to give off (sparks); sparkle; twinkle
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to be animated or brilliant
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physics to give off flashes of light as a result of the impact of particles or photons
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of scintillate
First recorded in 1615–25, scintillate is from the Latin word scintillātus (past participle of scintillāre to send out sparks, flash). See scintilla, -ate 1
Explanation
The verb scintillate means to twinkle or glow, as in a flickering light. You may find it romantic to sit on the deck overlooking a lake on a clear night, where you can enjoy the scintillating stars in the sky and the reflection of the moon on the water. Scintillate means to be sparkling and lively. Scintillate has its roots in the Latin words scintillare, meaning "to sparkle," and scintilla, meaning "a spark." The verb scintillate is related to the adjective scintillating and the noun scintilla. If you enjoy witty repartee, people may say your conversation scintillates with humor and they enjoy how you are so clever.
Vocabulary lists containing scintillate
Dubliners
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The War of the Worlds
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Simon Sort of Says
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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:
Liverpool certainly didn't scintillate with their display in the Midlands but they showed the resilience of champions.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2026
“Sky Islands” evokes the magical Philippines upper rainforests, where sounds scintillate in a thinned atmosphere that gives gongs new glories, where animals capable of great ascension exclusively live, where the mind is ready for enlightenment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2025
Space telescopes see the universe undistorted by Earth’s atmosphere, whose shifting air causes stars to scintillate, or twinkle, and whose gas molecules block many wavelengths entirely, including much of the infrared.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 14, 2022
Its luminous blue twilight sky and inky shadows scintillate while New Yorkers with little skull faces go about their business.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2021
It was maddening to be made to feel that he was in any way the inferior of this cool, self-possessed young woman, whose eyes seemed for a moment to scintillate with scorn.
From Anna the Adventuress by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
Kevin De Bruyne scintillated throughout, with Riyad Mahrez closely behind.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 21, 2019
The American consumer world is thrilled into electric activity, the rubbish scintillated and redeemed.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 8, 2017
The Dutch midfielder’s added-time header came as City scintillated before the break and seriously ran out of gas after it.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 5, 2016
It was as large as half a mat; it was multicolored, and it scintillated.
From Time Magazine Archive
What struggle there was in him between Nature and Grace in this interval, I cannot tell: only singular gleams scintillated in his eyes, and strange shadows passed over his face.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Leo Tolstoy, notoriously parsimonious in his praise of fellow scribblers, said that he had never met anyone with “so rare a combination of scintillating depth and brilliance” as Herzen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
But with an enforced break through injury and then lower minutes at the World Cup, he could be about to produce the regular scintillating performances we have become used to.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Probably most impressive, a category closely followed by economists known as real final sales rose at a scintillating 3.9% annual pace — the highest reading in more than three years.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
Iraola, therefore, will have been thrilled to see Isak showing scintillating form of old as he was instrumental as Sweden thrashed Tunisia 5-1 in Monterrey.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
"Is this the kind of scintillating conversation we're going to have now that we don't have any secrets?"
From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell
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.
