highlights

1. 1
   nouncountableplural

   A compilation of the most entertaining or consequential moments of an event, such as a sporting match, presented as a summary.

   Like a greatest-hits album, but for moments from a single event.

   The broadcaster aired the match highlights immediately after the final whistle.

   Fans shared the tournament highlights across social media within minutes.

   Similarrecap, summary, roundup

   Note

   In this meaning the word exists only in the plural. You watch the highlights or the match highlights, never a highlight, and it takes a plural verb: the highlights are on after the final whistle. It often follows a noun naming the event, as in tournament highlights. Each clip in the package is one highlight in the ordinary "standout moment" sense, while the package as a whole is the highlights.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of highlight.

   The painter added bright highlights to the water's surface.

   Her hair had subtle caramel highlights running through it.

   Note

   A regular plural that gathers quite different things under one spelling: the brightest spots in a painting or photograph, the standout moments of a season or a life, and strands of hair dyed a different color from the rest. The same form is also the present-tense verb. A determiner settles which you have: her highlights and the highlights are nouns, while she highlights the passage is the verb.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of highlight.

   The teacher highlights each mistake in red ink.

   This study highlights the risks of poor sleep.

   Note

   Every use of this verb form takes a direct object. A study highlights a risk, a stylist highlights hair, and a reader highlights a passage. Online chat has a narrower use: on IRC, someone highlights you by typing your name, so their message lights up on your screen. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, so a subject before it is what marks it as the verb.

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