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glimmering

glimmering

2 6.3
A small sign that something may be true
  • noun
  • /ˈɡlɪmərɪŋ/
translation icon : destello
  • The ceiling reflected a faint glimmering of light.

Examples

  • In that moment of shock, a glimmering of understanding came to him.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • In that moment of shock, a glimmering of understanding came to him.

  • Many people have reported a glimmering before seeing a miracle.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • As Public Relations Manager, no doubt you have some faint glimmering of what's happening to Starlin Products.

  • His first glimmering of it came at five in the morning, watching Dolly scrub out the stove drawer.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Although they had successfully occupied Europe and western Asia from about 200,000 years ago, the Neanderthals had shown only glimmerings of symbolic representation, doing little more than collecting fossils, minerals, and other objects that held some attraction for them.

    Academic text (1994)
  • As Public Relations Manager, no doubt you have some faint glimmering of what's happening to Starlin Products.

  • The rest of us, even the professional mathematicians like myself, only have a glimmering of what we're doing.

Synonyms

glimpse
vsglimmering
69 3.2

A small, quick sign that something may be true

is a vague understanding rather than a brief visible sign
inkling
vsglimmering
33 6.1

A small idea or feeling that something may be true

leans toward a vague general understanding rather than suspicion
intimation
vsglimmering
6 7.7

A small hint that something is true or will happen

is a slight suggestion that is less indirect and more general
adumbration of thought
vsglimmering
  • Literature
9.9

A faint early hint of an idea that appears later

is a brief present suggestion rather than a future foreshadowing

How Clear

insight
493 4.9
idea
1.0
notion
653 3.7
glimmering
2 6.3
inkling
33 6.1

Surface Forms

glimmering singular
glimmerings plural

Morphology

glimmering = glimmer (semi-transparent) = glimmer + ing

The word is built from 'glimmer' plus '-ing', but the sense 'a slight suggestion' is a metaphorical extension from a faint light rather than a fully literal combination.

Etymology

Glimmering comes from the old word glimmer, which means a 'faint light'. Think of a tiny glow you can barely see, and that is why a glimmering of hope or understanding is a very small, weak feeling or idea.