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Definitions: Lightening |
LighteningNoun1. Descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped. 2. Changing to a lighter color. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "lightening" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Mining | A peculiar brightening of molten silver, indicating that maximum purityhas been attained. Occurs in cupellation. (references) |
Shipping | A vessel discharges part of its cargo at anchor into a lighter to reduce the vessel's draft so it can then get alongside a pier. (references) |
Transportation | The operation(normally carried out at anchor)of transferring crude oil cargo from a large tanker to a smaller tanker, so reducing the draught of the larger tanker to enable it to enter port. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: LighteningSynonym: whitening (n). (additional references) |
| Synonym by domain: lightened (transportation). |
Crosswords: Lightening |
| English words defined with "lightening": Fulguration ♦ lenience, leniency ♦ storm ♦ violent storm. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | How can you be as fast as lightening and as slow as molasses at the same time? (Smallville; writing credit: Richard Pinto; Sharat Sardana) A bolt of lightening into a huge copper conductor. (X-Men; writing credit: Tom DeSanto; Bryan Singer) | |
Lyrics | But I've been hit by lightening. (The Flame; performing artist: Cheap Trick; writing credit: Bob Mitchell and Nick Graham) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | The lightening [sic] express, Savannah, Ga. / Geo. Barker, landscape photographer, Niagara Falls, N.Y.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Edwin Hubbel Chapin | Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Together they stood looking quietly into the lightening east. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Political Economy | France | The government has made some initial progress in lightening the tax burden on employers to stimulate job creation but has hesitated to take more fundamental structural reforms. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Lightening" is generally used as a lexical verb (-ing form) -- approximately 52.73% of the time. "Lightening" is used about 55 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (-ing form) | 52.73% | 29 | 64,444 |
| Noun (singular) | 32.73% | 18 | 82,615 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 10.91% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Noun (proper) | 3.64% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 55 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "lightening": be thundering and lightening. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
lightening | 705 | lightening wallpaper | 11 |
skin lightening | 72 | in lightening pregnancy | 10 |
lightening strike | 58 | crash lightening live | 9 |
lightening bug | 53 | grease lightening | 9 |
lightening rod | 41 | skin lightening lotion | 8 |
lightening protection | 34 | crash lightening lyrics | 8 |
lightening pregnancy | 32 | heat lightening | 8 |
lightening picture | 32 | lightening safety | 8 |
lightening bolt | 31 | tampa bay lightening | 8 |
skin lightening cream | 26 | greased lightening | 7 |
hair lightening | 25 | eyebrow lightening | 7 |
lightening storm | 18 | hair lemon lightening | 6 |
ford lightening | 17 | lightening white | 6 |
johnny lightening | 15 | lightening map | 6 |
hand his in lightening | 14 | lightening maine | 6 |
crash lightening | 13 | skin lightening product | 6 |
hair juice lemon lightening | 13 | background lightening | 6 |
lightening photo | 13 | lightening pic | 6 |
lightening map strike | 12 | natural hair lightening | 6 |
lightening thunder | 11 | crash lightening live lyrics | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "lightening"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | إضاءة (floodlight, illumination, light, lighting, lightness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 孕腹轻松. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | råolieoverførsel fra stort til mindre tankskib for at mindske dybgangen. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | salamoi (it is lightening). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | allègement, éclaircissage (lighting), éclairage (light, lighting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | erleichterung (alleviation, easement, facilitation, facility, gladness, relief), erleichternd (alleviative, assuaging, easing, facilitating, facilitative, relieving), aufhellung (brightening, clarification). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | könnyítés (alleviation, facilitation, purchase, relief). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | alleggerimento (reduction). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 조녕. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ighteninglay mitigar (abate, alleviate, assuage, Bate, blunt, mitigate, palliate, quench, relieve, salve, sate, slake, soften, soothe). (various references) облегчать облегчающий (unburdening). (various references) la la/mpara (lamp, lantern), focos, el rela/mpago (lightning). (various references) hafifletme (appeasement, commutation, extenuation, mitigation, modulation, palliation, relaxation, relief, remission). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | coruscus, fulgor, fulgora, fulgore, fulgoris, fulgorum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "lightening": enlightening, unenlightening. (additional references) | |
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"Lightening" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: lightenings, litghtning. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "lightening" (pronounced lī"tuning) |
| 7 | l ī" t u n i ng | enlightening. |
| 6 | -ī" t u n i ng | brightening, frightening, heightening, tightening, whitening. |
| 5 | -t u n i ng | battening, disheartening, fattening, flattening, heartening, shortening, straightening, sweetening, threatening. |
| 4 | -u n i ng | abandoning, apportioning, auctioning, auditioning, awakening, bargaining, beckoning, blackening, bludgeoning, broadening, burdening, burgeoning, captioning, cautioning, championing, cheapening, christening, coarsening, commissioning, conditioning, cushioning, dampening, darkening, deadening, deafening, decommissioning, deepening, determining, disciplining, disillusioning, envisioning, examining, fashioning, fastening, freshening, functioning, gardening, glistening, happening, hardening, hastening, imagining, imprisoning, jettisoning, leavening, lengthening, lessening, likening, listening, loosening, maddening, malfunctioning, margining, mentioning, motioning, opening, orphaning, pardoning, partitioning, petitioning, poisoning, positioning, provisioning, questioning, quickening, rationing, reasoning, reawakening, reckoning, reconditioning, reexamining, reopening, repositioning, ripening, ruining, saddening, sanctioning, seasoning, sectioning, sharpening, sickening, siphoning, slackening, softening, stationing, stiffening, strengthening, summoning, thickening, toughening, unquestioning, vacationing, weakening, widening, worsening. |
| 3 | -n i ng | abstaining, adjoining, adjourning, aligning, ascertaining, assigning, attaining, awning, ballooning, banning, beginning, bemoaning, binning, boning, branning, brining, Browning, burning, campaigning, caning, Canning, careening, cartooning, chaining, chaperoning, churning, cleaning, cloning, clowning, cocooning, coining, combining, complaining, concerning, condoning, confining, conning, constraining, containing, convening, Corning, couponing, crooning, crowning, cunning, dawning, declining, defining, demeaning, Denning, designing, detaining, dining, Dinning, discerning, disdaining, divining, donning, Downing, draining, droning, drowning, Dunning, Durning, earning, enjoining, entertaining, evening, explaining, fanning, fawning, feigning, fining, finning, frowning, gaining, ginning, governing, greening, grinning, groaning, gunning, headlining, honing, Horning, housecleaning, impugning, inning, intertwining, intervening, intoning, ironing, jawboning, joining, Kenning, leaning, learning, lightning, lining, loaning, machining, maintaining, Manning, meaning, midmorning, mining, moaning, morning, mourning, obtaining, opining, ordaining, outlining, overrunning, overtraining, overturning, owning, panning, penning, pertaining, phoning, pining, pinning, planning, postponing, preening, preplanning, pruning, quarantining, raining, realigning, reassigning, reclining, redefining, redesigning, redlining, refining, refraining, regaining, reigning, reining, rejoining, relearning, remaining, rerunning, resigning, restraining, retaining, retraining, returning, rezoning, running, scanning, screening, shining, shunning, signing, sinning, spanning, spawning, spinning, spurning, staining, stoning, straining, streamlining, stunning, sunning, sustaining, swooning, tanning, telephoning, thinning, toning, training, tuning, turning, twining, underlining, undermining, underpinning, unreasoning, Vining, waning, warning, weaning, whining, wining, winning, yawning, yearning, zoning. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-g-g-h-i-i-l-n-n-t" | |
-1 letter: lightning. | |
-2 letters: gentling, glinting, lighting, neighing, tingeing, tingling. | |
-3 letters: gingeli, heiling, henting, hilting, hinging, hinting, lighten, lignite, nighing, nightie, tinging. | |
-4 letters: gentil, gieing, giglet, hieing, higgle, ignite, intine, leggin, length, lignin, lining, linnet, niggle, tieing, tiling, tingle, tining. | |
-5 letters: eight, elint, genii, gighe, glint, hinge, ingle, inlet, legit, light, linen, linin, lithe, neigh, night, nihil. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-g-g-h-i-i-l-n-n-t" | |
+1 letter: lightninged, nightingale. | |
+2 letters: enlightening, nightingales. | |
+3 letters: frighteningly, hemagglutinin. | |
+4 letters: hemagglutinins, technologizing, unenlightening. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4C 69 67 68 74 65 6E 69 6E 67 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).-.. .. --. .... - . -. .. -. --. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "lightening" |
