Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To give light to; illuminate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To illuminate; light up; throw light upon, literally or figuratively.
Wiktionary
- v. To illuminate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To illuminate; to light up; to adorn.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make lighter or brighter
Etymologies
- Middle English illuminen, from Old French illuminer, from Latin illūmināre, to illuminate; see illuminate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“SVILUPPO: According to the Italian wires, the Holy See's message -- as communicated by Lombardi -- included the prayer that God might "illumine" the president-elect, that he might be able "to respond to the expectations and the hopes placed in him, effectively serving justice and right, seeking new paths to promote peace in the world, supporting the growth and dignity of peoples in respect to their human values and spiritual essence.”
“Lacking gloriousness in themselves, they deny gloriousness to all mankind; too cowardly for whimsy and derring-do, they assert whimsy and derring-do ceased at the very latest no later than the middle ages; flickering little tapers themselves, their feeble eyes are dazzled to unseeingness of the flaming conflagrations of other souls that illumine their skies.”
“If and when the external world does impinge on the poet's private thought processes, it is only to illumine some internal dilemma of the worrying poet, to strengthen or invigorate some pitiful struggle of his.”
“I'd like for readers to tell me, if they trusted me enough to be that honest with me, how the life of Marie Antoinette might illumine life as we live it.”
“We hope that looking at Ugly laws, anti-Okie laws, and Jim Crow laws will give us the distance and perspective we need to illumine our own blind spots and democratic failings.”
The Huffington Post: Paul Boden: The Quality of Whose Life? Part 2
“As Chris Williamson sang, "Open my eyes, that I may see, Spirit of Life, illumine me; Open my eyes, Spirit Divine.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Cara Barker: What the Chilean Miners Can Teach Us About Hope
“Who would have thought, for instance, that Hosea's domestic life would illumine his understanding of the love of God; or that Amos, a keeper of sycamore trees in the village of Tekoa, would be the one to redefine God as justice?”
The Huffington Post: John Shelby Spong: Why We Must Reclaim The Bible From Fundamentalists
“Each year when I ask high schools around the country to fill out the form for my annual America's Best High Schools list, I try to add a question to illumine an issue on which there is little research.”
The Washington Post: High schoolers barred from college-level courses
“Hoping to arrive on something less short-lived, something not so self-centered, something greater than me, I'm hoping this year to better illumine my path with age-old Hindu wisdom.”
The Huffington Post: Suhag A. Shukla, Esq.: Hindu Niyamas: Ancient Resolutions for New Years
“I wanted this piece to resonate immediately and deeply into the core of the listener, to illumine through sound.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘illumine’.
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, I
irenic, inimical, ignotism, infrangible, internecine, illumine, ingot, imposter, iconoclast, indefeasible, indefatigable, impingement and 184 more...
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parody's Words
defenestrate, behemoth, floss, macchiato, glom, emu, alpaca, crocheted, ampersand, charade, conflate, salacious and 193 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Benandanti
All things Light
aureole, aura, aurora borealis, aglow, lucent, lambent, radiant, bright, burn, fire, solstice, brazier and 94 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
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rduke's Words
misguggle, ken, sere, etiolated, gelid, digladiate, popinjay, bathykolpian, conglaciation, hyperborean, callipygian, vagile and 1253 more...
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VTF.
placidity, ethereal, aphotic, omniscient, incorruptible, ephemeral, asomatous, esoteric, superfluous, myriad, quell, cerebral and 19 more...
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aphonik's Words
alalia, enantiodrome, huzzah, inviolate, sequester, approbation, lugubrious, pernicious anemia, ablation, calumny, hagiography, isoflavone and 51 more...
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Coruscate, Coruscate, Little Star
twinkle, sparkle, glimmer, flicker, scintillate, incandesce, fulgurate, radiate, beam, glow, flame, flare and 18 more...
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Just Plain Beautiful
Words that are just pretty. I don't know whether it's because of what they mean that I find them pretty, or because of how they sound, or both. But these are my lovely words.
penumbra, crimson, afterglow, topaz, lyre, velvet, ivory, mist, vespertine, oubliette, aria, crystalline and 31 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (I)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
ichor, icicle, icing, igloo, illusion, immortal, incense, indigo, infinity, initiate, inn, intrinsic and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for illumine.

yarb Yes, except it's not archaic. It's rather neater than illuminate, dontcha think? Jun 27, 2008
seanahan Is this an archaic form of illuminate? Jun 27, 2008
yarb A distant street-light illumined a pair,
identified by Don as Sue's parents...
- Peter Reading, 10 x 10 x 10, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977 Jun 26, 2008