Word.ws English Dictionary

glister

/ˈɡlɪstɚ/

glister verb: to gleam, glisten, or coruscate. Also the alternative form of clyster.

Verb

glister (third-person singular simple present glisters, present participle glistering, simple past and past participle glistered)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To gleam, glisten, or coruscate.
    • All that gliſters is not gold.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • But, as the Phœnix on my Front doth gliſter, / Thou ſhalt the Finials of my Frame illuſtre.1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His First Week, or Birth of the World: […].] The Fift Daie of the First Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and...

Noun

glister (plural glisters)

  1. A brilliant flash; a glint.

Also used as

glister is also the alternative form of clyster.

Forms of glister

Verb
third-person singular presentglisters
present participleglistering
past participleglistered
pastglistered
Noun
pluralglisters

Origin of glister

From Middle English glisteren, either borrowed from or related to Middle Low German and/or Middle Dutch glisteren; like a host of other Germanic words in gl- related to shining, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley-.

Compare Old French glistere.

Questions about glister

What does glister mean?
Glister means to gleam, glisten, or coruscate.
What part of speech is glister?
Glister can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce glister?
Glister is pronounced /ˈɡlɪstɚ/.
What is the past tense of glister?
The past tense of glister is glistered.

Words near glister in the dictionary

  1. glistening
  2. glisteningly
  3. glistenings
  4. glistens
  5. glisteny
  6. glister
  7. glistered
  8. glistering
  9. glisteringly
  10. glisters
  11. glistring

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: glister (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-glister.oga.

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