Word.ws English Dictionary

lighten

/ˈlaɪ.tn̩/

lighten verb: to make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.

Verb (1)

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

  1. (transitive) To make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.
    • to lighten an apartment with lamps or gas; to lighten the streets
    • A Key of fire ran all along the shore,
      And lighten’d all the river with the blaze:1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, London: Henry Herringman, stanza 231, p. 59
    Synonyms:
    light up
  2. (intransitive) To become brighter or clearer; to brighten.
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To flash lightning, to give off lightning.
    • Enter the Conjurer; it lightens and thunders […]c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, →OCLC, [line 500]
    • […] this dreadful night,
      That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
      As doth the lion.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (transitive) To emit or disclose in, or as if in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning.
    • […] behold his eye,
      As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth
      Controlling majesty:1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  5. (archaic) To illuminate with knowledge.
    • O Light which mak’st the Light, which makes the Day,
      Which setst the Eye without and Mind within,
      Lighten my spirit with one cleare heavenly ray,
      Which now to view it selfe doth first begin.1599, John Davies, “Of the Soule of man, and the immortalitie thereof”, in Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle Expounded in Two Elegies, London: John Standish, page 10
    Synonyms:
    enlighten

Verb (2)

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

  1. (transitive) To alleviate; to reduce the burden of.
    • Sorrow can be lightened by being openly brought out.
    • Many hands lighten the workload.
  2. (transitive) To make light or lighter in weight.
  3. (transitive) To make less serious or more cheerful.
    • They looked unto him, were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 34:5
  4. (intransitive) To become light or lighter in weight.
  5. (intransitive) To become less serious or more cheerful.

Verb (3)

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

  1. To descend; to light.
    • Book of Common Prayer
      O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us.

lighten meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

lighten in Tamil

எடைகுறை, ஒளிர்வி, தணியச் செய்

lighten in Urdu

to lighten
اتارنا utārnā

lighten in Malayalam

പ്രകാശിപ്പിക്കുക, ഭാരം കുറയ്ക്കുക, ലഘൂകരിക്കുക

lighten in Kannada

ಹಗುರಮಾಡು, ಹೊರೆಯಿಳಿಸು, ಸಮಾಧಾನಮಾಡು, ಹಗುರಗೊಳಿಸು, ಹೊಳಹುದೋರು, ಭಾರವಿಳಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
lighten in Arabic
بَرَقَ baraqa, أَبْرَقَ ʔabraqa

Examples of lighten in a sentence

  • I wish he'd lighten up a bit and realize that we were only joking.
  • The mood at work has been tense, so he's looking for ways to lighten it up.
  • By then the sky is lightening, sun candescent at the hill of her shoulder.

All 37 example sentences with lighten

Synonyms of lighten

Forms of lighten

third-person singular presentlightens
present participlelightening
past participlelightened
pastlightened
second-person singular present (archaic)lightenest
second-person singular past (archaic)lightenedst

Past tense of lighten: lightened

Origin of lighten

From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light + -en.

From light + -en.

Words formed from lighten

Words that rhyme with lighten

Questions about lighten

What does lighten mean?
Lighten means to make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.
What is lighten in Tamil?
Lighten in Tamil is எடைகுறை, ஒளிர்வி, தணியச் செய். See Lighten meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is lighten?
Lighten is a verb.
How do you pronounce lighten?
Lighten is pronounced /ˈlaɪ.tn̩/.
What is the past tense of lighten?
The past tense of lighten is lightened.

Words near lighten in the dictionary

  1. lighted into
  2. lighted the blue touchpaper
  3. lighted the touch-paper
  4. lighted the touchpaper
  5. lighted up
  6. lighten
  7. lighten someone's purse
  8. lighten up
  9. lightened
  10. lightened someone's purse
  11. lightened up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lighten (page history and authors); lighten (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اتارنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); lighten (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lighten (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lighten.wav.

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