twinkle means A sparkle or glimmer of light. It carries an Arena rating of 2043, earned across 37 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, twinkle ranks #21 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #39 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #260 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #333 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
twinkle is pronounced /ˈtwɪŋ.kəl/.
Why “twinkle” is a great word
To shine with a flickering or intermittent light, or a sparkle of such light. From Middle English twinclen, twynclen, from Old English twinclian ("to twinkle"), a frequentative form of Old English twincan ("to wink, blink"). Unlike glitter, which implies a bright, hard, and often cold sparkle from a surface, or gleam, which suggests a steady, subdued emission, twinkle is a softer, gentler, and more distant play of brightness. It is the patient, coded signal from a far star seen through atmospheric haze, the fugitive catch-light in a child's eye at the promise of a secret, or the lone, wavering lamp of a distant boat on a vast, black sea—a quiet testament to perception across impossible distances.
Etymology
From Middle English twinclen, twynclen, from Old English twinclian (“to twinkle”), equivalent to twink (“to wink; blink; twinkle”) + -le (frequentative suffix). Compare German zwinkern (“to wink; twinkle”).
noun
- A sparkle or glimmer of light.e.g.“Soon the rocket was out of sight, and the flame was only seen as a tiny twinkle of light.” — 1980, Robert De Beaugrande, Text, Discourse, and Process:
- A sparkle of delight in the eyes.e.g.“He was a rotund, jolly man with a twinkle in his eye.”
- A flitting movement.e.g.“I saw the twinkle of white feet,” — 1848, James Russell Lowell, Hebe:
- A brief moment; a twinkling.
- The female genitalia.e.g.“The popular Swedish cartoon song about genitals was translated as "Willie and Twinkle".”
verb
- To shine with a flickering light; to glimmer.e.g.“We could see the lights of the village twinkling in the distance.”
- To be bright with delight.e.g.“His shrewd little eyes twinkled roguishly.”
- To bat, blink or wink the eyes.e.g.“She smiled and gave a little nod and twinkled her eyes[…]” — 1922, Mrs. Juliet M. Hueffer Soskice, Chapters from Childhood: Reminiscences of an Artist's Granddaughter, page 165:
- To flit to and fro.e.g.“A butterfly twinkled among the vines[…]” — 1988, Dorothy Gilman, Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, page 190:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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