Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use lightning in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Lightning means a flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth. Example: “Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.”

Examples of lightning by meaning

nounA flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or...

  • Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.
  • It was the thought of hot July and August days, when the clouds piled up like woolly mountains, and lightnings streaked the sky.1901, E. L. Morris, The Child's Eden, page 16
  • Manny drove a few miles per hour under the speed limit, entranced by the awesome display of lightning streaking out of the clouds toward earth.2008, Kathy Clark, Stand By Your Man, page 280

nounA discharge of this kind.

  • The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand.
  • That tree was hit by lightning.

nounAnything that moves very fast.

  • Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp....

adjectiveExtremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning.

  • The insurgents then began their lightning advance along the Euphrates in the Sunni heartland toward Baghdad.2018, Nader Uskowi, Temperature Rising, page 69

verbTo produce lightning.

  • Or if it thundered and lightninged, Aunt Frances always dropped everything she might be doing and held Elizabeth Ann tightly in her arms until it was all over.1916, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Understood Betsy
  • The next day, though it is not only raining but thundering and lightninging as well, antiquing is seen by three-fourths of those present as a lesser evil than free play.1968, Dan Greenburg, Chewsday: a sex novel
  • It thundered and lightninged, and I was very hungry.1988, Carlo Collodi, Roberto Innocenti, The adventures of Pinocchio

More sentences with lightning

  • Thunder boomed in the distance and lightning flashes lit up the horizon.From the entry boom
  • I was talking to him, but there was lightning and we lost the connection.From the entry connection
  • The eagle and the bolt of lightning are attributes of Jove.From the entry attribute
  • One can use the speed of sound to estimate the range of a lightning flash.From the entry range
  • Swamp gas occasionally catches fire. Sometimes lightning sets off a patch of swamp gas.From the entry swamp gas
  • Lichtenberg figures are often seen on the skin of a person who has been struck by lightning.From the entry Lichtenberg figure
  • Thunder almost always accompanies lightning during a rain storm.From the entry accompany
  • I saw a brilliant chain of lightning across the sky.From the entry chain
  • The lightning left her dazzled for several minutes.From the entry leave
  • My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.From the entry brick
  • He had seen lightning bolts yesterday night.From the entry bolt
  • After the lightning came the crash of thunder.From the entry crash
  • The lightning spell was originally pretty powerful, but in the sequel they nerfed it so it became completely useless.From the entry nerf
  • Benjamin Franklin established the identity of electricity and lightning.From the entry identity
  • The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.From the entry shatter
  • The thunder rolled and the lightning flashed.From the entry roll
  • Her new novel involves a mad scientist, but there's more to it than just bubbling flasks and lightning bolts.From the entry mad scientist
  • Hettie was chain lightning with a six-shooter.From the entry chain lightning
  • The Fulgural Books were an Etruscan guide to understanding the will of the gods through their supposed messages in lightning.From the entry fulgural
  • Lightning struck, and the marsh gases erupted into a marshfire.From the entry marshfire
  • A flash of lightning may be made up of several strokes. If they are separated by enough time for the eye to distinguish them, the lightning will appear to flicker.From the entry stroke
  • The fire created dry lightning storms so severe that planes had to be grounded.2020 January 1, Bernard Lagan, “Thousands flee to beaches as the flames close in”, in The Times, number 73,044, page 24. From the entry fire
  • Indeed, SWIFT messages are literally lightning fast, travelling over wire at the speed of light, basically instantaneous.2020, Nikesh Lalchandani, Payments and Banking in Australia. From the entry apronym
  • I watched as lightning bugs drifted in, glowing yellow against the shadows.2019, Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Water Dancer, Penguin Books (2020), page 18. From the entry lightning bug
  • Wondering if and when lightning crotch might strike was not at all helpful.2019 October 8, Samantha Seneviratne, The Joys of Baking: Recipes and Stories for a Sweet Life, Running Press Adult, →ISBN. From the entry lightning crotch
  • The events highlighted in this latest study are what’s known as spider lightning.2019 August 22, Maya Wei-Haas, “Record-breaking lightning as long as Kansas spotted”, in National Geographic. From the entry spider lightning
  • While you may envision lightning as largely vertical, spider lightning races horizontally through the clouds.2019 August 22, Maya Wei-Haas, “Record-breaking lightning as long as Kansas spotted”, in National Geographic. From the entry spider lightning
  • Some scientists think the electric field from lightning in the cloud makes the ice crystals move.2017, Suzanne Garbe, “Sun Dogs”, in The Science behind Wonders of the Sun: Sun Dogs, Lunar Eclipses and Green Flash, Oxford, Oxfordshire…. From the entry sun dog
  • These storms typically arrive in the afternoon, building incredible cloud banks that can unleash rapid-fire lightning strikes.2016, Kai Huschke, 50 Hikes in Northern New Mexico (Explorer's 50 Hikes), →ISBN. From the entry downstrike
  • I'd always been fascinated by lightning and had always had an unexplainable lachesism.2015, Johnny Close, Eco-Lonely, page 110. From the entry lachesism

Meaning of lightning

  1. noun A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
  2. noun A discharge of this kind.
  3. noun Anything that moves very fast.

Full definition of lightning

Questions about lightning in a sentence

How do you use lightning in a sentence?
Lightning is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.”
What is a short sentence with lightning?
“That tree was hit by lightning.”
What does lightning mean?
Lightning means a flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lightning (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use lightning in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/lightning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.