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“Lightening” or “Lightning”

lightening / lightning are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

lightening l·AY·t·ah·n·ih·ng

  • noundescent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped.

lightning l·AY·t·n·ih·ng

  • nounabrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light.
  • nounthe flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more.
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“lightening”

  • …the pindu is solid black, lightening when breeding and even more…
  • …decomposes into a small two-tailed "Lightening Marten" and a paper Prince…

“lightning”

  • …such as waves, sea breeze, lightning, thunders, earthquakes, and wildlife congregations.
  • …Howlin' Wolf recording of "Smokestack Lightning" was selected for a Grammy…
  • Cloud-to-ground lightning
  • Sprite lightning
  • …Tornado and Air Commodore, F35B Lightning
  • Lightning raids begin across the country…
  • …clouds are illuminated by large lightning discharges.
  • Heat lightning, also known as silent lightning,…
  • Heat lightning
  • …pursuing Veles, attacking with his lightning bolts from the sky.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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