MEANING
To shine with a soft, wavering or flickering light.
Use it for
Sunlit surfaces, heat distortion, and gently shifting brightness.Make light seem unstable rather than fixed.
Words that belong together
- water shimmers
- shimmer in the heat
- shimmering leaves
On the page
The lake shimmered beneath the noon sun.
Heat made the distant cliffs shimmer.
Silver leaves shimmered as the wind turned them.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- shimmer / shimmers
- Past tense
- shimmered
- Past participle
- shimmered
- Present participle
- shimmering
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- shimmer / shimmers
- Present continuous
- am/is/are shimmering
- Present perfect
- have/has shimmered
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been shimmering
- Past
- shimmered
- Past continuous
- was/were shimmering
- Past perfect
- had shimmered
- Past perfect continuous
- had been shimmering
- Future
- will shimmer / shimmers
- Future continuous
- will be shimmering
- Future perfect
- will have shimmered
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been shimmering
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: environment. Often involves many small changing reflections or atmospheric distortion; also a noun. Verb [base, third-person, past, past participle, -ing]: shimmer, shimmers, shimmered, shimmered, shimmering.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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