He needs a few jokes to lighten up his talk.
Source: tatoeba (304855)
Lighten
//ˈlaɪ.tn̩//
Synonyms for "lighten" (122 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (25)
Strong matches (36)
Related words (61)
kick the beamlaylenifylessenlightlight upluminatemake lightmake lightermitigatemoderatemodulatemollifyobtundoff-loadovershinepalliateplay downreducereduce the temperature
Show 37 more words
reduce weightrelumereluminerestrainset at easeshed light uponshineshine uponslackenslow downsmilesmothersobersober downsoftenspotlightstiflesubduesuppresssweetentake the edge offtametemperthinthrow light upontone downtune downunballastunburdenunderplayunfreightunladeunloadweakenweigh lightlywhilewhiten
Verb(4 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
9 entriesAntonyms
2 entriesSynonyms
2 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
9 entriesderived from
1 entriesmanner of
3 entriesrelated to
13 entriesTranslations
93 translations across 31 languages.
Ancient Greek
2 entries- κουφίζω verb (to alleviate)
- κουφίζω verb (to make light in weight)
Arabic
2 entries- أَبْرَقَ verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
- بَرَقَ verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
Aromanian
2 entries- lishuredz verb (to alleviate)
- lishuredz verb (to make light in weight)
Asturian
1 entries- allixerar verb (to make light in weight)
Bulgarian
4 entries- облекчавам verb (to alleviate)
- осветявам verb (to make brighter or clearer)
- просветлявам verb (to become brighter or clearer)
- святкам verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
Campidanese Sardinian
2 entries- allebiai verb (to alleviate)
- allixerai verb (to alleviate)
Catalan
4 entries- alleugerir verb (to alleviate)
- alleugerir verb (to make light in weight)
- alleugerir-se verb (to become light in weight)
- alleujar verb (to alleviate)
Danish
1 entries- lyne verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
Dutch
1 entries- verlichten verb (to alleviate)
Finnish
4 entries- keventyä verb (to become light in weight)
- keventyä verb (to become less serious)
- keventää verb (to alleviate)
- keventää verb (to make light in weight)
French
1 entries- alléger verb (to alleviate)
Galician
3 entries- aliviar verb (to alleviate)
- alixeirar verb (to alleviate)
- alixeirar verb (to make light in weight)
Gallurese
1 entries- alliciricà verb (to alleviate)
German
2 entries- blitzen verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
- erleichtern verb (to alleviate)
Hebrew
3 entries- הֵקֵל verb (to alleviate)
- הֵקֵל verb (to make light in weight)
- הֵקֵל verb (to make less serious)
Hungarian
1 entries- villámlik verb (to flash lightning, to give off lightning)
Ido
4 entries- alejar verb (to alleviate)
- alejar verb (to make light in weight)
- gayeskar verb (to become less serious)
- gayigar verb (to make less serious)
Italian
1 entries- alleggerire verb (to alleviate)
Korean
1 entries- 덜어주다 verb (to alleviate)
Māori
1 entries- whakamāmā verb (to make light in weight)
Ottoman Turkish
1 entries- خفیفلنمك verb (to become light in weight)
Polish
4 entries- odciążać verb (to alleviate)
- odciążać verb (to make light in weight)
- odciążyć verb (to alleviate)
- odciążyć verb (to make light in weight)
Portuguese
4 entries- aligeirar verb (to make light in weight)
- aligeirar verb (to make less serious)
- aliviar verb (to alleviate)
- aliviar verb (to make light in weight)
Romanian
2 entries- ușura verb (to alleviate)
- ușura verb (to make light in weight)
Russian
4 entries- обле́гчить verb (to alleviate)
- облегча́ть verb (to alleviate)
- осветли́ть verb (to make brighter or clearer)
- осветля́ть verb (to make brighter or clearer)
Sardinian
3 entries- allezerire verb (to alleviate)
- disaggraviare verb (to alleviate)
- illepiare verb (to alleviate)
Sassarese
2 entries- allizarigà verb (to alleviate)
- alliziriggà verb (to alleviate)
Spanish
4 entries- aclarar verb (to make brighter or clearer)
- aclararse verb (to become brighter or clearer)
- aligerar verb (to make light in weight)
- aligerarse verb (to become light in weight)
Swedish
4 entries- lätta verb (to alleviate)
- lätta verb (to make light in weight)
- lätta verb (to make less serious)
- lätta verb (to become light in weight)
Turkish
1 entries- hafifletmek verb (to alleviate)
Welsh
2 entries- goleuo verb (to make brighter or clearer)
- ysgafnhau verb (to become light in weight)
Sample sentences
21 total sentences available.
It was just a joke. Lighten up!
Source: tatoeba (601258)
For God's sake Bob, lighten up.
Source: tatoeba (1112062)
Lighten up.
Source: tatoeba (1860610)
Showing 4 of 21 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.