How to use shimmer in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun

Shimmer means to shine tremulously or intermittently; to gleam faintly. Example: “The fluorescent plants shimmered in the darkness.”

Examples of shimmer by meaning

verbTo shine tremulously or intermittently; to gleam faintly.

I looked then and saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered.1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1973, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 339
Pale tourists, tired but excited, emerge like apparitions from the heat haze that shimmers over the tarmac.2018, Tsitsi Dangarembga, chapter 22, in This Mournable Body, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press

nounA faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining.

Over each mound there hung a dusty golden shimmer of bees.1922, Katherine Anne Porter, “María Concepción”, in Flowering Judas and Other Stories, New York: The Modern Library, published 1940, page 6
He’d aimed film lamps at the rectangular pools, which sent reflections up the gallery wall in veined and fractured shimmers.2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 16, in The Flamethrowers, New York: Vintage, published 2014, page 294

nounA measure of the irregularities in the loudness of a particular pitch over time.

Two commonly obtained perturbation measures are jitter and shimmer.2010, Daniel R. Boone, The Voice and Voice Therapy, Pearson College Division, →ISBN

More sentences with shimmer

The fluorescent plants shimmered in the darkness.From the entry fluorescent
Prague held on to its shimmering rooftops and medieval bridges built by Holy Roman emperors.2024 July 10, Jaroslav Kalfar, “Read Your Way Through Prague”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN…. From the entry Holy Roman Emperor
On a hot summer's day, one can literally see heatwaves shimmering off the surfaces of inanimate objects.2021, Murray du Plessis, Modern Meditations: 101 Ways to Slow Down & Connect to Spirit. From the entry heatwave
Malcolm’s vision was now almost totally occupied by the shimmering dazzle of the scotoma.2019, Philip Pullman, The Secret Commonwealth, David Fickling Books (2020), page 373. From the entry scotoma
The illumination they produce is tranquil, more shimmering and diffuse, and nongarish.2014, Vinod Kumar Khanna, Fundamentals of Solid-State Lighting, →ISBN. From the entry nongarish
When the oil starts to shimmer, pour in the egg mixture.2014, Aarti Sequeira, Aarti Paarti: An American Kitchen with an Indian Soul, Grand Central Life & Style, →ISBN. From the entry spoonula
Her robes shimmered with wards of unsight stitched in electrum thread.2013, Peter V. Brett, The Daylight War - Page 566. From the entry unsight
It definitely looks like a beer—no shimmering neon green here—and it’s well carbonated like a beer.2013, Adem Tepedelen, The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers: An All-Excess Pass to Brewing’s Outer Limits, Guilford, Conn.: Lyons…. From the entry graham crackery
Stupefying heat shimmered in the mangrove forest, the sun an unfaceable white glare somewhere overhead.2011, A. A. Jameson, Shark People, page 113. From the entry unfaceable
On the other side of the electric fence, the fata morgana shimmers.2007, Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, 4th Estate, published 2010, page 290. From the entry fata morgana
Tunes with titles like “Mazurka Maracaibo” shimmer with countless plucked strings.2007 July 15, Jon Pareles, “Sounds Dire, Droll, Dreamy and on the Edge of Kitsch”, in New York Times. From the entry slidey
The flitter tumbled from the shimmering throat of the wormhole transit route from Port Sol to Earthport.1994, Stephen Baxter, Ring, →ISBN, page 43. From the entry flitter
Sol squinted out over the barrens to where the mountains shimmered in the heat haze.1990, Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion, 1st edition, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 165. From the entry barren
Unless expressly desired to remain, he always shimmers off when what is called the Quality arrive.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC. From the entry the quality
The sea shimmered there, and turned, at last, into a moonglade, through which she glided handsomely.1945, Edmund Gilligan, Voyage of the Golden Hind. From the entry moonglade
The dust-motes caught their radiance, and danced in shimmering lilly-lows, which played about the kitchen.1912, Louis Pergaud, “Margot”, in Douglas English, transl., Tales of the Untamed: Dramas of the Animal World, New York: Outing Publishing…. From the entry lilly-low
Behind this shimmering disk, the secret plateau.”2021 December 3, Liesl Schillinger, quoting Sylvain Tesson, “Books That Satisfy Your Yearning for Far-Off Places”, in The New York Times…. From the entry Kunlun
His glasses are shimmering circles of cold white fire.2020 November 24, David Nickle, Monstrous Affections: Stories, Open Road Media, →ISBN. From the entry drunkover
Curiel's cloud was golden—shining, shimmering, splendid golden.2018 April 24, E. L. Hound, The Heart of Time: An Almostbiography, page 14. From the entry shining, shimmering, splendid
On either side of the brass clover flower, one of the bracelet's leather strands had been strung with shimmering green rocks.2015, Susan Vaught, “Three Weeks Later”, in Footer Davis Might be Probably is Crazy (A Paula Wiseman Book), New York, N.Y.: Simon &…. From the entry aventurine
Eliasson’s falls are almost miragelike, especially after dark, when unobtrusive lighting makes them shimmer white against the muffled cityscape.2008 June 27, Roberta Smith, “Cascades, Sing the City Energetic”, in New York Times. From the entry miragelike
But who could not have been captivated by the passages of ecstatic murmurings; shimmering, unhinged harmonies; ruminatively Wagnerian lyricism?2007 January 20, Anthony Tommasini, “Muti Takes the Reins, a Classicist at His Core”, in New York Times. From the entry ruminatively
Many keep urban pied-à-terres in nearby apartment buildings that offer stunning views of the broad, shimmering Río de la Plata.2006 June 11, Jonathan Kandell, “Buenos Aires Beef, on Hoof and on Plates”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry Río de la Plata
The May sun shimmered on its surface.2002, KID, “Prologue”, in Ever 17: The Out of Infinity. From the entry glossy
But never, never has the writer seen the shoreline so intense, shimmering: grass of the park hypergreen, sky hyperblue.2002, Farber Thomas, The Beholder: A Novel, Metropolitan Books, →ISBN, page 35. From the entry hypergreen
All afternoon they had shimmered upon the lawns.2001, Jamie O’Neill, At Swim, Two Boys, London: Simon & Schuster UK, published 2002, page 322. From the entry blush
But there is also, on occasion, an under-oxygenated air of fantasy, a shimmering mirage of whitelessness and Asian self-sufficiency.1999, Eric Liu, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, page 71. From the entry whitelessness
Kaffe is really cooking up a storm here, with polychromatic fireworks in shimmering primaries exploding and rioting all over the canvas.1991, Fruits of the Earth: Flowers and Fruit in Needlepoint, page 86. From the entry cook up a storm
Yue’er began to laugh again and her tears shimmered like dew on a lotus leaf disturbed by a breeze.1979, Women of China, page 44. From the entry -er
This consisted of a large black cape, shaped cowl and pants with belt, with 'shimmering P.V.C. contrasting bat decorations'.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 186. From the entry nosepiece
In another instant with a flutter of keys Mary Trenzlo had flung back the trunk cover on its shimmering contents.1921, The Ladies Home Journal, volume 38, page 5. From the entry flutter
He, too, showed up in style ahead of the game, wearing a custom bedazzled Amri combination of a bouclé shirt and matching shimmering trousers.2024 February 12, Alaina Demopoulos, “Romcom ending: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s big night at the Super Bowl”, in The Guardian, →ISSN. From the entry bouclé
I had to unspin this shimmering construction and move back and forth through the rooms tracing the pattern without getting tangled in it.1970, Mary Richie, A Romantic Education, page 59. From the entry unspin
Shouting with joy, his shimmering greatsword.1910, Oliver Huckel, Richard Wagner, Siegfried: A Dramatic Poem, T.Y. Crowell Company, page 41. From the entry greatsword
In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder.1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC. From the entry midmost

Meaning of shimmer

verb To shine tremulously or intermittently; to gleam faintly.
verb Of a mass of bees: to move their abdomens in a coordinated manner so as to produce a shimmering wave effect, thought to deter predators.
noun A faint or veiled and tremulous gleam or shining.

Full definition of shimmer

Questions about shimmer in a sentence

How do you use shimmer in a sentence?: Shimmer is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The fluorescent plants shimmered in the darkness.”
What is a short sentence with shimmer?: “Shouting with joy, his shimmering greatsword.”
What does shimmer mean?: Shimmer means to shine tremulously or intermittently; to gleam faintly.

Adapted from Wiktionary: shimmer (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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