sheet lightning

sheet lightning noun: a broad flash of lightning, with no visible bolt, due to reflection.

Noun

sheet lightning (usually uncountable, plural sheet lightnings)

(usually) A broad flash of lightning, with no visible bolt, due to reflection.
- In most very warm days in summer the thermometer stands above 70 degrees on the scale of Fahrenheit, about the centre of the county; in the summer of 1811, it stood repeatedly above 80°; and on the 25th of May, 1807, during the time when the sheet lightning of tropical regions appeared, about three...1812, General view of the agriculture, state of property, and improvements in the county of Dumfries
- It probably belongs to the class we are accustomed to call sheet lightnings, for these are by far the most frequent in an ordinary storm.1859 October, “Marvels of Thunder-Storms”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, page 216

படரொளி மின்னல்

The occurrence of sheet lightning in a particular district did not necessarily involve that a thunderstorm was experienced there, for it frequently happened that the storm was a long way off.1890 January, William Marriott, “Second report of the thunderstorm committee”, in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society...
K'iche' diviners believe that they have a kind of soul in their blood in the form of sheet lightning.2014, Karen Bassie-Sweet, Maya Sacred Geography and the Creator Deities, page 95:

plural	sheet lightnings

What does sheet lightning mean?: Sheet lightning means a broad flash of lightning, with no visible bolt, due to reflection.
What is sheet lightning in Tamil?: Sheet lightning in Tamil is படரொளி மின்னல். See Sheet lightning meaning in Tamil.
How do you use sheet lightning in a sentence?: The occurrence of sheet lightning in a particular district did not necessarily involve that a thunderstorm was experienced there, for it frequently happened that the storm was a long way off.
What part of speech is sheet lightning?: Sheet lightning is a noun.
What is the plural of sheet lightning?: The plural of sheet lightning is sheet lightnings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sheet lightning (page history and authors); sheet lightning (Tamil 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: 2026-09-02

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