DictionaryAI

lightning

LYT-ning/ˈlaɪt.nɪŋ/

5 meanings of lightning

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    A sudden, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the ground, seen as a bright flash of light.

    Investigators concluded that the forest fire had been started by lightning, not by campers.

    Lightning struck the church spire and sent bricks crashing into the street.

    UsageSpelled lightning (not incorrect: lightening), with no e; say struck by lightning and a flash of lightning.

    Note

    This is the lightning that acts rather than shines: it strikes, hits a tree, melts sand, sets a forest alight. The same word covers the flash seen in the sky, and most sentences never need to choose, but verbs like strike and hit, and the set phrase struck by lightning, point to the discharge itself.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

  2. 2
    very quickadjective
    Done or happening with extreme speed or suddenness, like a flash of lightning.

    The army launched a lightning attack on the capital before dawn.

    Thanks to her lightning reflexes, the goalkeeper stopped the shot.

    UsageUsed before a noun: a lightning attack, lightning reflexes; also the phrase at lightning speed.

    Similarrapid, swift, quick, sudden

    Oppositeslow

  3. 3
    fast movernounfigurativelyuncountable
    Anything that moves very fast, described as though it were lightning itself.

    The mongoose was lightning, darting aside before the cobra could strike.

    Off the starting blocks the young sprinter was pure lightning.

    UsageUsually after be with no article: was lightning, pure lightning.

    Note

    As a figure of speech it stands as a bare noun after be, with no article: in Edgar Rice Burroughs's The Land That Time Forgot (1918), Nobs “was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast.”

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote The Land That Time Forgot. gutenberg.org
    • The first book edition appeared in 1924; 1918 is the magazine publication year. erbzine.com
    • The quoted words describe Nobs in The Land That Time Forgot. gutenberg.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    make flashesverbnonstandardchildishintransitive
    To produce lightning; used impersonally, with it as the subject.

    All through the night it thundered and lightninged over the campground.

    "Get out of the pool if it starts to lightning," the lifeguard told the kids.

    UsageForms are lightninged and lightninging; in formal writing say there was lightning instead.

  2. 5
    ginnounarchaicuncountable
    Gin, the alcoholic spirit.
    Note

    The slang is archaic now and survives mainly as period color in historical fiction: in Jake Arnott's The Fatal Tree (2017), a character pours “another glass of lightning” to coax out a confession.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Jake Arnott wrote The Fatal Tree, first published in 2017. jakearnott.com
    • A character pours “another glass of lightning” while encouraging Bess to disclose what she has done. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origin

A doublet of lightening, built by adding the suffix -ing to light(e)n.