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Glite Dictionary
🤰 Baby drops lower 🎨 Becoming paler
lightening

lightening

1 5.0
A change that makes something paler in color
  • noun
  • /ˈlaɪtənɪŋ/
translation icon : blanqueamiento
  • Some skin lightening creams which have been like people have tried to ban them.
  • lightening cream
  • skin lightening
  • lightening hair

You might, people might use skin lightening creams.

Examples

  • You can expect a gradual lightening of the fabric color after multiple washes.

  • It's actually like lightening my under eye area.

  • Fortunately, it was still dark, but in the east there was an ever so faint lightening to the sky.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • You might, people might use skin lightening creams.

    Stanford

  • Despite Jackson's oft-repeated claim that the lightening of his skin was a pigment disease, popular discourses about Jackson often chastised or condemned him for failing to perform his authentic blackness correctly.

    Academic text (2013)

  • After using the cream for several weeks, I noticed a significant lightening of my skin tone.

  • The artist achieved a beautiful lightening effect in the painting by using lighter shades of blue.

Synonyms

whitening
vslightening
10 3.6

Making skin, clothes, or teeth lighter in color

is the natural process of becoming paler rather than an applied treatment
depigmentation
vslightening
  • Specialized
1 8.2

Loss of colour in the skin or hair that makes them look lighter

is a process of becoming paler that applies generally, not only pigment loss

Antonyms

darkening
6 3.7

A change when something becomes less light in color

How Light

bleach
2 2.7
lightening
1 5.0
fading
1 3.0

Surface Forms

lightening singular
lightenings plural

Morphology

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

Standard verbal noun/gerund formation from 'lighten' (+ -ing) with the expected meaning 'becoming lighter' which learners can infer from the base.

Etymology

Lightening for color change comes from light and lighten, meaning 'to make lighter' or 'less dark'. So when you bleach hair or wash fabric to make its color paler, you are doing a 'lightening', which explains the modern meaning.