twinkle

1. 1.

   gleam or glow intermittently

   “The lights were flashing”

   Synonymsflashblinkwinkwinkle

   Broaderradiate

   Narrowerflicker
2. 2.

   emit or reflect light in a flickering manner

   “Does a constellation twinkle more brightly than a single star?”

   Synonymswinklescintillate

   Broadershine

   celestial body

Other forms of twinkle

plural

twinkles·

past tense

twinkled·

present participle

twinkling·

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.

Questions about twinkle

What does twinkle mean?

twinkle means "a rapid change in brightness; a brief spark or flash". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in twinkle?

twinkle has 2 syllables: twin-kle. The stress falls on "twin". In IPA it is /ˈtwɪŋkəl/.

What is another word for twinkle?

Close synonyms include scintillation, sparkling, sparkle, spark, light. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is twinkle a common word?

twinkle is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.