Showing results for "twinkling"

• present participle of twinkle.

twinkling

American  

[twing-kling] / ˈtwɪŋ klɪŋ /

noun

• twinklings
  plural

1. an act of shining with intermittent gleams of light.

2. the time required for a wink; an instant.

3. Archaic. winking; a wink.

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twinkling British  

/ ˈtwɪŋklɪŋ, twɪŋk /

noun

1. Also called: twinkling of an eye.  a very short time; instant; moment

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twinkling Idioms  

1. see in the twinkling of an eye.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• untwinkling
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• twinklings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of twinkling

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at twinkle, -ing ¹

Explanation

The adjective twinkling refers to light that appears sporadically bright and then faint. When the light from stars is twinkling, it may look as if they're winking at you. Of course, it's not the stars themselves that are twinkling, but their light, which gets refracted as it passes through the turbulence of the earth's atmosphere. The same goes for the lights of distant cities or any other lights that stay constant but appear to brighten and dim. As a noun, twinkling means something brief, as in "the twinkling of an eye."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

twinkling twinklings

Digital creators also walked the red carpet twinkling and sparkling in cultures and sculpted dresses.

From BBC ● May 10, 2026

The store’s front facade was wrapped in a giant plaid scarf made of 126,000 twinkling Christmas lights.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026

The audience rehashed its hunches, they circled potential suspects, they stared at a static image of a horrific crime scene, awash in twinkling moonlight.

From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026

He used the giant telescope to capture the twinkling of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

Dylan’s illusion is a whole forest of twinkling neon lights.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

"It quickly became clear to me that mutability has these twinklings of joy, sometimes ecstasy, which comes through in the poems, I think."

From The Guardian ● Jan. 27, 2011

Carnival in an ordinary little Italian town seems, no doubt, commonplace enough to those who have seen its glories in Rome—the crowded Corso, the rush of the maddened horses, the firefly twinklings of the Maccoletti.

From Stray Studies from England and Italy by John Richard Greene

It is also observable, that those bright scintillations neer the Horizon, are not by much so quick and sudden in their consecutions of one another, as the nimbler twinklings of Stars neerer the Zenith.

From Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon by Robert Hooke

But nearer and nearer, low-creeping along, came mists and vapors, a thousand; spotted with twinklings of Will-o-Wisps from neighboring shores.

From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville

Innumerable twinklings of stars faintly illuminated a cloudless, serene heaven, and a foaming, plunging ocean.

From Overland by J. W. (John William) De Forest