different between glisten vs scintillate

English

Etymology

From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l?s?n/
• Rhymes: -?s?n

Verb

glisten (third-person singular simple present glistens, present participle glistening, simple past and past participle glistened)

1. (intransitive, of a wet or greasy surface) To reflect light with a glittering luster; to sparkle, coruscate, glint or flash.

Translations

Noun

glisten (plural glistens)

1. A glistening shine from a wet surface.

Translations

Anagrams

• Etlings, Tingles, lingets, niglets, singlet, sniglet, tingles

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin scintill?tus, past participle of scintill?re (“to sparkle, glitter, gleam, flash”), from scintilla (“a spark”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?nt?le?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?nt?le?t/
• Hyphenation: scin?til?late

Verb

scintillate (third-person singular simple present scintillates, present participle scintillating, simple past and past participle scintillated)

1. (intransitive) To give off sparks; to shine as if emanating sparks; to twinkle or glow.
   1. (astronomy) Of a star or other celestial body: to vary rapidly in brightness; to twinkle.
   2. (nuclear physics) Especially of a phosphor: to emit a flash of light upon absorbing ionizing radiation.
2. (transitive, now rare) To throw off like sparks.
   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, “Mr. Arabin”, in Barchester Towers: In Three Volumes, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, OCLC 911659634; republished as Barchester Towers. [...] In Two Volumes (Hand and Pocket Library; II), volume I, New York, N.Y.: Dick & Fitzgerald, 18 Ann Street, [1860], OCLC 863553483, page 201:

     As a boy young Arabin took up the cudgels on the side of the Tractarians, and at Oxford he sat for a while at the feet of the great [John Henry] Newman. To this cause he lent all his faculties. For it he concocted verses, for it he made speeches, for it he scintillated the brightest sparks of his quiet wit.

Derived terms

• scintillating (adjective)
• scintillation
• scintillator

Related terms

• scintilla
• stencil
• tinsel

Translations

Further reading

• scintillate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• scintillate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• scintillate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Italian

Verb

scintillate

1. second-person plural present and imperative of scintillare

Latin

Verb

scintill?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of scintill?