illuminate
part of speech
verb (illuminate, illuminates, illuminated, illuminating)
meaning for a pupil
1) To light something up; to shine light on it. tree →
2) (formal) To make something clearer and easier to understand. tree →
3) To decorate old books with bright pictures and gold, as in «illuminated manuscripts». tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons, a torch illuminates an object so we can see it; the Sun illuminates the Moon. In history, monks made illuminated letters. In formal writing: «This example illuminates the problem.» Phrases: brightly illuminated, illuminate the room.
examples
- Street lamps illuminate the road at night. tree →
- The Sun illuminates half of the Moon. tree →
- Fireworks illuminated the sky. tree →
- Shine the torch to illuminate the cave wall. tree →
- The teacher's drawing illuminated the hard idea. tree →
- Monks illuminated the first letter of each page with gold. tree →
- The stage was illuminated by one bright spotlight. tree →
- A single feather from its tail illuminates a dark room. tree →
note
Regular verb. Noun: illumination (also lights put up for a festival, as in «the Blackpool Illuminations»). Adjective: illuminating — helpful, making things clear. Formal; everyday word: light up.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «illuminate» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.