twinkling
twinkling Lexical Profile
twinkling Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Shining with a gleam that varies repeatedly between bright and faint.
"We lay on the grass and gazed up at the twinkling stars in the clear night sky."
Bright and lively with amusement, mischief, or delight (especially of a person's eyes).
"The grandfather told the tall tale with a warm smile and twinkling eyes."
• noun
A flickering, intermittent gleam or sparkle of light.
"Through the telescope, atmospheric turbulence causes the rapid twinkling of distant stars."
An extremely brief period of time; an instant (especially in phrases such as 'in a twinkling' or 'in the twinkling of an eye').
"The magician made the silver coin vanish in the twinkling of an eye."
• Rhymes for twinkling
Word Origin & Etymology
From Middle English twinkelinge, a verbal noun formed from the Old English verb twinclian ('to wink, blink, or sparkle'), which contains the frequentative suffix -l- indicating rapid, repeated motion.