Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤰 Baby drops lower 🎨 Becoming paler
lightening

lightening

1 9.8
When the baby moves down into the mother's lower belly before birth
  • noun
  • /ˈlaɪtənɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : descenso

Examples

  • This racial liminality continued posthumously, as many of the reports after his death note both the presence of skin-lightening chemicals and a coroner's report that seemed to confirm that the pop star had vitiligo.

    Academic text (2013)

  • As she approached the final weeks of her pregnancy, she felt a noticeable lightening as the baby dropped lower into her pelvis.

  • The doctor explained that lightening occurs when the fetus descends in preparation for birth, relieving pressure on the mother's lungs.

  • Many women experience a sense of lightening during the last trimester, indicating that labor is approaching.

Surface Forms

lightening singular
lightenings plural

Morphology

lightening = lighten (opaque) = light + en + ing

Although morphologically 'lighten' + '-ing', the obstetric sense 'descent of the fetus' is a specialized medical meaning not readily inferred by an average learner from the base verb.

Etymology

Lightening in pregnancy comes from lighten and light, which mean 'not heavy' or 'to make lighter'. It describes the baby moving down so the mother's belly feels 'lighter' and she can breathe more easily, so the name directly shows that change.