Sunbeam

name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ray of sunlight; especially, a visible, narrow, and intense (relative to ambient light) ray of sunlight (as revealed by, for example, its diffraction among dust particles).

    "I cut-in various other material to this; for instance, a shot of a rushing brook in springtime, with dancing sunbeams reflected in the water; of birds splashing in the village pond; and, finally, of a laughing child."

  2. 2
    a ray of sunlight wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the genus Curetis.
  4. 4
    Any hummingbird of the genus Aglaeactis.
  5. 5
    Synonym of sunshine (“ironic form of address to an inferior or troublemaker”). UK

    "DOCTOR: You seem to be our best bet so far, don't you think so, Mel? Mel? Where's Mel? DEPUTY: No, no, no, sunbeam. You're coming with us."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    An item of cutlery or crockery laid out on a table, but not used, and which can be returned to the drawer without being washed. Australia, colloquial, dated
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    An unincorporated community in Moffat County, Colorado, United States.
  2. 2
    An unincorporated community in Mercer County, Illinois, United States.
  3. 3
    An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia, United States.

Synonyms

All synonyms
broad daydawndayday glowdaylightdayshine

Example

More examples

"The sunbeam acts upon the skin."

Etymology

From Middle English sonnebeem, sonne beem, from Old English sunnbēam, sunnebēam (“sunbeam”), equivalent to sun + beam.

Related phrases

Burmese sunbeamIndian sunbeamShiva's sunbeamangled sunbeambright sunbeamtoothed sunbeam

More for "sunbeam"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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