What does "lightning" mean?

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.

What is a synonym for "lightning"?

Common synonyms include: thunderbolt, antelope, arrow, ball lightning, blue darter, blue streak.

//ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ// adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
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. uncountable, usually
"Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder."
2
the flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more wordnet
3
A discharge of this kind. uncountable, usually
"The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand."
4
abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light wordnet
5
Anything that moves very fast. figuratively, uncountable, usually
"Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease. Then he raced to the rear of the tremendous thing and seized it by the tail."

Show 2 more definitions

6
Gin. archaic, slang, uncountable, usually
"I took some gin but it did little to calm my mood. […] 'Come now, Bess,' she entreated, and poured another glass of lightning. 'Tell your old mother everything.' I took a gulp of the spirit, then babbled all, showing her the loot now in my possession."
7
Obsolete form of lightening. alt-of, obsolete, uncountable, usually

Verb

1
To produce lightning. childish, impersonal, intransitive, nonstandard
"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."

Adjective

1
Extremely fast or sudden; moving (as if) at the speed of lightning. not-comparable
"The insurgents then began their lightning advance along the Euphrates in the Sunni heartland toward Baghdad."

"I'm at the hospital. I got struck by lightning."

From light(e)n + -ing. Doublet of lightening.

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