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# illuminate

«illuminate» in Mova's school dictionary: **To light something up; to shine light on it** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (illuminate, illuminates, illuminated, illuminating)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To light something up; to shine light on it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#m1)

2) (formal) To make something clearer and easier to understand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#m2)

3) To decorate old books with bright pictures and gold, as in «illuminated manuscripts». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#m3)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x1)
- The Sun illuminates half of the Moon. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x2)
- Fireworks illuminated the sky. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x3)
- Shine the torch to illuminate the cave wall. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x4)
- The teacher's drawing illuminated the hard idea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x5)
- Monks illuminated the first letter of each page with gold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x6)
- The stage was illuminated by one bright spotlight. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x7)
- A single feather from its tail illuminates a dark room. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/#x8)

### 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](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/illuminate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.