ILLUMINATING

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does illuminating mean? 

• ILLUMINATING (adjective)
  The adjective ILLUMINATING has 1 sense:

1. tending to increase knowledge or dissipate ignorance

  Familiarity information: ILLUMINATING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ILLUMINATING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tending to increase knowledge or dissipate ignorance

Synonyms:

enlightening; illuminating; informative

Context example:

an illuminating lecture

 Context examples 

The new method is another advance in brain imaging that brings researchers closer to illuminating the entire brain and nervous system, one of today's greatest engineering challenges.

(Bigger is better for brain tissue understanding, NSF)

A massive dataset has revealed patterns in the regions where coccolithophores live, illuminating the inner workings of the ocean carbon cycle.

(Study reveals changing patterns in globally important algae, National Science Foundation)

The average size of the molecules in the nebula’s central cavity, surrounding the illuminating star, is larger than on the surface of the cloud at the outer edge of the cavity.

(“Kitchen Smoke” Molecules in Nebula Offer Clues to the Building Blocks of Life, NASA)

This cosmic trio makes up just a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are springing to life and illuminating their surroundings.

(VST Captures Three-In-One, ESO)

What's more, the NuSTAR observations reveal that the grip of the black hole's gravity pulled the corona's light onto the inner portion of its superheated disk, better illuminating it.

(NuSTAR sees rare blurring of black hole light, NASA)

When the first light of the rising moon touched the sail, illuminating the boat with pearly radiance, Ruth moved away from him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“Admirable!” he said. “A most illuminating remark. It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong. Yet you saw for yourself. Can you suggest any fallacy?”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was echoed from Salêve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant every thing seemed of a pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered itself from the preceding flash.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He drew up lists of the most incongruous things and was unhappy until he succeeded in establishing kinship between them all—kinship between love, poetry, earthquake, fire, rattlesnakes, rainbows, precious gems, monstrosities, sunsets, the roaring of lions, illuminating gas, cannibalism, beauty, murder, lovers, fulcrums, and tobacco.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)