highlight

UK/ˈhaɪlaɪt//ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/

highlight noun: an area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.

Noun

highlight (plural highlights)

(painting) An area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.
- The image blurred into the highlight, like something familiar seen beneath disturbed though clear water; he looked at the familiar image with a kind of quiet horror and despair, at a face suddenly older in sin than he would ever be, a face more blurred than sweet, at eyes more secret than soft.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 114
Antonyms:

lowlight
(figuratively) An especially significant or interesting detail or event or period of time.
- Meeting my future wife was the highlight of my trip to Spain.
- We'll be broadcasting the news highlights every half an hour.
A strand or spot of hair dyed a different color than the rest.

Verb

highlight (third-person singular simple present highlights, present participle highlighting, simple past and past participle highlighted or (nonstandard) highlit)

(transitive) To make prominent; emphasize.
- The Guardian has spoken to dozens of Europeans who have left, or are planning to leave. Their stories highlight surprising new migration routes – from Lisbon to Luanda, Dublin to Perth, Barcelona to Buenos Aires – as well as more traditional migration patterns.2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in The Guardian
- Farmer highlights the fact that the reasons why causing offence is (or is not) deemed criminalizable are often historically specific, and follows Duff in counselling against attempts to ground criminalization in some 'master principle'[…]2011, Rowan Cruft, Matthew H. Kramer, Mark R. Reiff, Crime, Punishment, and Responsibility, page 16
Synonyms:

relieve
(transitive) To be a highlight of.
(transitive) To mark (important passages of text), e.g. with a fluorescent marker pen or in a wordprocessor, as a means of memory retention or for later reference.
(transitive) To dye (part of the hair) a different color than the rest.
(Internet, transitive) To seek the attention of (a user) on IRC by mentioning their name in a message, causing that message to appear highlighted on their screen.
- You could have asked: is there a reason this easy patch was not applied, either on IRC or private mail by me. You did write a comment on IRC and I did see it. Problem is that you did not highlight me _and_ you did not wait for an answer.2006, Frans Pop, “Re: Bug#378404: installation guide: one more additional proposal”, in linux.debian.maint.boot (Usenet)
- You must be somewhere completely different. I’ve looked for several days and don’t see you. But: I’m kind of blind from time to time - please feel free to highlight me ([Sno]) or probably (H. Merijn Brand) Tux or vanHoesel (Theo van Hoesel).2013, Jens Rehsack, “Re: AnyData open API”, in perl.dbi.dev (Usenet)

highlight meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

highlight in Hindi

हाइलाइट करें, हाइलाइट

highlight in Tamil

அழுந்தக் கூறு, உயர்த்தி உரை, சிறப்பி, சிறப்புக் கூறு, சிறப்புக்கூறு, பெரிது படுத்து

highlight in Marathi

ठळकपणे दाखवा, ठळकपणे दाखवण्यासाठी

highlight in Urdu

اہم نقطہ, خاص جھلکی, سرخی, نمایاں کرنا, توجہ مبذول کرنا

More languagesFewer languages

highlight in Bengali: প্রধান বৈশিষ্ট্য, লক্ষণীয় করা
highlight in Telugu: హైలైట్, హైలైట్ చేయండి, ముఖ్యాంశం
highlight in Malayalam: കൂടുതൽ പ്രകാശമനമായ ഭാഗം, പ്രധാനഭാഗം, എടുത്തുകാട്ടുന്ന സംഗതി, ഓർമ്മയിലെന്നും നില്‍ക്കുന്ന നിമിഷം
highlight in Kannada: ಪ್ರಮುಖಾಂಶಗಳು, ರಸನಿಮಿಷಗಳು, ಸ್ವಾರಸ್ಯಕರ ಭಾಗಗಳು, ಬೆಳಗು
highlight in Punjabi: ਹਾਈਲਾਈਟ, ਹਾਈਲਾਈਟ ਕਰੋ, ਉਜਾਗਰ ਕਰਨਾ
highlight in Gujarati: હાઇલાઇટ કરો, હાઇલાઇટ, હાઈલાઈટ કરો
highlight in Odia: ହାଇଲାଇଟ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ହାଇଲାଇଟ କରନ୍ତୁ, ହାଇଲାଇଟ୍
highlight in Nepali: हाइलाइट गर्नुहोस्, हाईलाइट गर्नुहोस्, हाइलाइट गर्न
highlight in Malay: imej tumpu, serlah
highlight in Persian: روشن rowšan, پررنگ porrang

Examples of highlight in a sentence

The proposal in connection with taxonymy is that a taxonym must (a) further specify a highlighted feature of the hypernym and (b) must similarly highlight it.2013, R. Green, C.A. Bean, Sung Hyon Myaeng, The Semantics of Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, →ISBN, page 15:
Ron DeSantis Monday in a campaign letter highlighting Haley’s first quarter accomplishments.2023 April 11 [2023 April 10], Sarah Elbeshbishi, “Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley slams Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis in campaign...

All 40 example sentences with highlight

Synonyms of highlight

relieve

Antonyms

lowlight

Forms of highlight

Noun
plural	highlights
alternative form (informal)	hilite
Verb
third-person singular present	highlights
present participle	highlighting
past participle	highlighted
past	highlighted
past participle (nonstandard)	highlit
past (nonstandard)	highlit

Past tense of highlight: highlighted

Plural of highlight: highlights

Origin of highlight

From high + light.

Words formed from highlight

Questions about highlight

What does highlight mean?: Highlight means an area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.
What is highlight in Hindi?: Highlight in Hindi is हाइलाइट करें, हाइलाइट. See Highlight meaning in Hindi.
How do you use highlight in a sentence?: The proposal in connection with taxonymy is that a taxonym must (a) further specify a highlighted feature of the hypernym and (b) must similarly highlight it.
What part of speech is highlight?: Highlight can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce highlight?: Highlight is pronounced /ˈhaɪlaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of highlight?: The plural of highlight is highlights.

Words near highlight in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: highlight (page history and authors); highlight (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); highlight (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); highlight (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); highlight (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); highlight (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); highlight (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); highlight (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-highlight.ogg.

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