sheen
noun
luster; brightness; radiance.
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sheen
1 American
[sheen]
/ ʃin /
Sheen
2
American
[sheen]
/ ʃin /
noun
sheen
British
/ ʃiːn /
noun
-
a gleaming or glistening brightness; lustre
-
poetic splendid clothing
adjective
Synonym Usage
See polish.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sheensimple
-
sheenssimple
-
have sheenedperfect
-
has sheenedperfect
-
am sheeningprogressive
-
are sheeningprogressive
-
is sheeningprogressive
-
have been sheeningperfect progressive
-
has been sheeningperfect progressive
Past
-
sheenedsimple
-
had sheenedperfect
-
was sheeningprogressive
-
were sheeningprogressive
-
had been sheeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sheen
First recorded before 900; (adjective) Middle English sheene “beautiful, bright, shining,” Old English scēne; cognate with German schön; (verb) Middle English s(c)henen, derivative of the adjective; (noun) derivative of the adjective
Explanation
A sheen is a quality of things that are shiny, usually with reflected light. Anything that shines has a sheen, like satin in candlelight or a beautiful head of hair. Shakespeare loved using words in fresh new ways, and he did that with the adjective for sheen (for “beautiful, bright”) in Hamlet. He used sheen as a noun, and it’s been that way ever since. A sheen is a luster that happens because of reflected light. A well-polished table has a sheen, as does a car that's just been washed. Shined shoes have a sheen. If it’s shiny and beautiful, it has a sheen.
Vocabulary lists containing sheen
Unit 1: Telling Details
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The City of Ember
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Skellig
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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:
For months, she churned up a rainbow sheen of chemicals in local creeks to show they were still present.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Greenpeace said the oil sheen had expanded from up to 20 square kilometres on July 24 to an estimated 600 on August 4, according to satellite imagery it reviewed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
Fabrics with sheen or brocade thread add luminescence in the darkened church setting, says Walicka Maimone: “Only so much lighting can come from the windows. We need to lift the palette and create the sparkle.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Dozens of people were waiting for them, McAfee said, launching into a scene that unfolded with a Hollywood sheen.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
He stayed that way a few moments longer, arm raised, chest heaving, a fine sheen of sweat filming his brow.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
"What he told me made my blood run cold," said Sheen, who spoke to Gowan months before he died.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Sheen said he hoped "people in the more official areas" would respond as well and "work with us on it".
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Conceived as a vehicle for several Brat Pack actors of the time including Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland, the film nonetheless belonged to Curry, who relished every line of villainy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Toxic waste sites exposed in Michael Sheen documentary 'tip of the iceberg'
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
But he felt so out of place there—like a white man working at Afro Sheen headquarters, he liked to say—that he quit.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
However, sheens and patches were will visible, said Capt. Kelly Denning, the Coast Guard’s New Orleans sector commander.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
The volume of oil spilled has not been determined, but activists have published images of polluted farmland, water surfaces blighted by oil sheens and dead fish mired in sticky crude.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
In astronomy, iconic images, like the “pillars of creation” or a black hole’s event horizon, are beautiful and awe-inspiring, but what we see is essentially made of numbers rather than imperceptibly sheer sheens of paint.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 16, 2022
Donati: We use different sheens of paint for walls and trim.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 2, 2022
It was crow colored—black, but with petrol sheens of green and purple and deep blue—but the underside of its wings was red.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Sparkling catsuits sheened like the shiny slug trails left in the forest at dawn.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 4, 2021
And that would force us to confront our bodies as they really are; not the buffed, sheened perfection of youth, but the bumps, wrinkles and dry patches of middle age.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 20, 2019
Def Leppard sold tons of records, back when musicians used to do that, with a heavy metal sound sheened to pop perfection on songs like “Photograph” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 29, 2019
“Feathers drop from the air as well, a thin drizzle of feathers, an autumn of feathers, always falling. Black as ink, white as snow, often sheened mysteriously, mystically blue.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 26, 2018
The train rolled past scrap and recycling yards, men and women’s backs sheened mirror bright with sweat as they stacked hand carts with purchased scrap and moved it to weighing platforms for sale.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
The sweat sheening Kendrick’s forehead minutes into the show.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2022
Crews working to replace steep plate walls had noticed light sheening, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2022
There was minimal sheening seen near the Juneau-Douglas Bridge, said Bressler, and the Coast Guard and DEC will monitor it over the weekend.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 14, 2015
Added Mr. Stone: “We were just sheening our heads off.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2011
She is next to him, sitting back on her heels, hands folded in her lap, her dark kimono sheening in the half light, and gazing at him the way she did this afternoon, steadily, intently.
From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston
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.
