Glimmer

//ˈɡlɪmə(ɹ)// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A faint light; a dim glow. countable, uncountable

    "The glimmer of the fireflies was pretty to watch."

  2. 2
    a slight suggestion or vague understanding wordnet
  3. 3
    A flash of light. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a flash of light (especially reflected light) wordnet
  5. 5
    A faint or remote possibility (as it were a flash of light). countable, uncountable

    "a glimmer of hope"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Mica. dated, uncountable
  2. 7
    The opposite to a trigger; micro-moments of regulation that foster feelings of well-being countable, neologism, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To shine with a faint, unsteady light. intransitive

    "the glimmering dawn    a glimmering lamp"

  2. 2
    shine brightly, like a star or a light wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
gleamgleaminklingshimmersparkleflicker

Antonyms

All antonyms
oodles

Example

More examples

"There was still a glimmer of hope left."

Etymology

From Middle English glimeren, glemeren (“to glimmer”), equivalent to glim (“to shine”) + -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with German Low German glimmern (“to glimmer”), German glimmern (“to glimmer”), Danish glimre (“to glimmer”), Swedish glimra (“to glimmer”). Doublet of glimpse. Sense 5 was coined in the 2020s in analogy to trigger.

Related phrases

glimmer of hopeglimmer-gowk

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.