Word.ws English Dictionary

counterilluminate

counterilluminate verb: to use photophores on the underside of the body so as to hide a dark silhouette that would otherwise be seen from below by predators.

Verb

counterilluminate (third-person singular simple present counterilluminates, present participle counterilluminating, simple past and past participle counterilluminated)

  1. To use photophores on the underside of the body so as to hide a dark silhouette that would otherwise be seen from below by predators

Forms of counterilluminate

third-person singular presentcounterilluminates
present participlecounterilluminating
past participlecounterilluminated
pastcounterilluminated

Origin of counterilluminate

From counter- + illuminate.

Questions about counterilluminate

What does counterilluminate mean?
Counterilluminate means to use photophores on the underside of the body so as to hide a dark silhouette that would otherwise be seen from below by predators.
What part of speech is counterilluminate?
Counterilluminate is a verb.
What is the past tense of counterilluminate?
The past tense of counterilluminate is counterilluminated.

Words near counterilluminate in the dictionary

  1. counterideal
  2. counterideals
  3. counterideas
  4. counterie
  5. counteries
  6. counterilluminate
  7. counterilluminated
  8. counterilluminates
  9. counterilluminating
  10. counterillumination
  11. counterimage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counterilluminate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “counterilluminate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/counterilluminate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.