say it: LAHY-tuh-ning
lightening is a noun meaning "descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped". It carries 2 recorded senses.
descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped
changing to a lighter color
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for lightening come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.