Sparkling
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Act or appearance of something that sparkles; a sparkle; a gleam.
"Bright are the sparklings that beam from the dew."
- 2 a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash wordnet
- 3 A sparkling wine.
"Wines like this struggle to stand out on the show circuit, where the judges are more likely to be searching for sparklings designed in the classic Champagne mould."
- 4 Ellipsis of sparkling water (“fizzy drinking water”). abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
- 1 present participle and gerund of sparkle form-of, gerund, participle, present
- 1 Of an object, reflecting light as if giving off tiny sparks or flashes of light. not-comparable
""Methinks 't were sweet once more to see Our native forest shade, And the wild streamlet leaping free Along the sparkling glade,..."
- 2 Of a beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage, containing dissolved carbon dioxide (either naturally or that has been added) that comes out of solution in the form of many tiny bubbles. not-comparable
- 3 Brilliant and vivacious. figuratively, not-comparable
"The outstanding train on the L.M.S. route was the 6.20 p.m. from Birmingham, which reached Euston in two hours after intermediate stops at Coventry, Rugby and Watford Junction, and evoked some sparkling performances from "Patriot" and "Jubilee" 4-6-0s."
- 1 used of wines and waters; charged naturally or artificially with carbon dioxide wordnet
- 2 shining with brilliant points of light like stars wordnet
Example
More examples"My husband likes to have a drink in the evening. He drinks 6 or more bottles of sparkling wine and 5 or 6 bottles of warm sake. Sometimes he has a day where he doesn't drink, but it has never lasted for more than two days."
Etymology
By surface analysis, sparkle + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "sparkling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.