Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To give off sparks.
  • intransitive verb To give off or reflect flashes of light; glitter: synonym: flash.
  • intransitive verb To be reflected in small flashes of light.
  • intransitive verb To be brilliant in performance.
  • intransitive verb To make or contain witty or intelligently lively remarks.
  • intransitive verb To release gas bubbles; effervesce.
  • noun A small spark or gleaming particle.
  • noun A glittering quality.
  • noun Brilliant animation; vivacity.
  • noun Emission of gas bubbles; effervescence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A spark; an ignited or a luminous particle, or something comparable to it; a scintillation; a gleam.
  • noun The act or state of sparkling; emission of sparks or scintillations; sparkling luminosity or luster: used literally or figuratively.
  • To emit sparks; send off small ignited particles, as burning fuel, etc.
  • To shine as if giving out sparks; glitter; glisten; scintillate, literally or figuratively: as, a brilliant sparkles; a sparkling beauty; sparkling wit.
  • Synonyms and
  • Scintillate, Glitter, etc. (see glare, verb i.), coruscate.
  • To emit with coruscations; throw out sparklingly.
  • To scatter; disperse.
  • To sprinkle; spatter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To emit sparks; to throw off ignited or incandescent particles; to shine as if throwing off sparks; to emit flashes of light; to scintillate; to twinkle.
  • intransitive verb To manifest itself by, or as if by, emitting sparks; to glisten; to flash.
  • intransitive verb To emit little bubbles, as certain kinds of liquors; to effervesce.
  • transitive verb obsolete To disperse.
  • transitive verb obsolete To scatter on or over.
  • noun A little spark; a scintillation.
  • noun Brilliancy; luster.
  • transitive verb To emit in the form or likeness of sparks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A little spark; a scintillation.
  • noun Brilliance; luster
  • verb intransitive To emit sparks; to throw off ignited or incandescent particles; to shine as if throwing off sparks; to emit flashes of light; to scintillate; to twinkle; as, the blazing wood sparkles; the stars sparkle.
  • verb intransitive To manifest itself by, or as if by, emitting sparks; to glisten; to flash.
  • verb intransitive To emit little bubbles, as certain kinds of liquors; to effervesce; as, sparkling wine.
  • verb transitive To emit in the form or likeness of sparks.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To disperse.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To scatter on or over.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the occurrence of a small flash or spark
  • noun the quality of shining with a bright reflected light
  • verb become bubbly or frothy or foaming
  • noun merriment expressed by a brightness or gleam or animation of countenance
  • verb be lively or brilliant or exhibit virtuosity
  • verb emit or produce sparks
  • verb reflect brightly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sparklen, frequentative of sparken, to spark; see spark.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from sparken + -le

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Examples

Comments

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  • Sparkly text?

    ETA: Damn, it didn't work.

    October 5, 2007

  • Apparently there is no such thing as a "sparkle" tag. Color me disappointed.

    October 5, 2007

  • Sparkle is also a children's skip-counting game. :)

    October 6, 2007

  • <sparkle>magical</sparkle>

    October 7, 2007

  • Sparkle Plenty was a character in the Dick Tracy comic strip.

    October 8, 2007

  • I've just added sparkle to my list.

    February 13, 2008

  • Lovely little bit of sparkling wit there, SoG.

    February 13, 2008

  • :-)

    February 13, 2008

  • Sparkle, sparkle, puny orb;

    Will I your mys'try e'er absorb,

    Lording over everything

    Like a rock star trailing bling?

    -by Quentin M. Sullivan

    See comments at scintillate.

    June 12, 2017