different between sparkle vs starburst

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sp??k?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?sp??k?l/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k?l
• Homophone: SPARQL

Etymology 1

From Middle English sparkel, sparkle, sparcle, equivalent to spark +? -le (diminutive suffix).

Noun

sparkle (countable and uncountable, plural sparkles)

1. A little spark; a scintillation.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     The shock was sufficiently strong to strike out some sparkles of his fiery temper.

2. Brilliance; luster.

3. Liveliness; vivacity.

4. The quality of being sparkling or fizzy; effervescence.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English sparklen, sperclen, equivalent to spark +? -le (frequentative verb). Cognate with Dutch sparkelen (“to sparkle”).

Alternative forms

• sparckle, sparcle (obsolete)

Verb

sparkle (third-person singular simple present sparkles, present participle sparkling, simple past and past participle sparkled)

1. (intransitive) To emit sparks; to throw off ignited or incandescent particles

2. (by extension) To shine as if throwing off sparks; to emit flashes of light; to scintillate; to twinkle

   • A Mantelet vp on his shulder hangynge
     Bretful of Rubies reede / as fyr sparklynge
3. (intransitive) To manifest itself by, or as if by, emitting sparks; to glisten; to flash.
4. (intransitive) To emit little bubbles, as certain kinds of liquors; to effervesce

5. (transitive) To emit in the form or likeness of sparks.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To disperse.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To scatter on or over.

Synonyms

• (glisten, flash): shine, glisten, scintillate, radiate, coruscate, glitter, twinkle

Derived terms

• asparkle
• sparkler
• sparkling water

Translations

References

• sparkle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• kerslap

Middle English

Noun

sparkle

1. Alternative form of sparkel

English

Etymology

star +? burst

Noun

starburst (plural starbursts)

1. A violent explosion, or the pattern (likened to the shape of a star) supposed to be made by such an explosion.
   • 2002: Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror

     ... his arm striking brick and the bottle shattering in a starburst of black ...

   • 2003: Tim Cockey, Murder in the Hearse Degree: A Novel

     A starburst of red exploded on his chest and he flew backward a good six or seven feet.

   • 2004: Elizabeth George, Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life

     ... and another that creates a cicatrix starburst from her right eye to her temple. This scar is the result of an accident when she was ten years old, ...

2. (typography) A symbol similar to an asterisk, but with additional rays: ?.
3. (astronomy) A region of space with an unusually high rate of star formation.
4. (astronomy) A period in time during which a region of space experiences an unusually high rate of star formation.

   The Milky Way will see a starburst in approximately 200,000,000 years.

Translations

See also

• starburst galaxy

Verb

starburst (third-person singular simple present starbursts, present participle starbursting, simple past and past participle starbursted)

1. (astronomy, of a region of space) To experience an unusually high rate of star formation.
2. To explode; to burst out violently via, or in such a manner as to cause, an explosion.
3. To make a starburst pattern.
4. To refract and sparkle.
   • 1998: Graham Joyce, The Tooth Fairy

     The faint light from the sky starbursted on a tear. Suddenly there was something appallingly human about her.