GLITTER, GLEAM, GLISTEN AND SHIMMER

STANDARD DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

GLITTER: Sparkle with light

GLEAM: Glow or shine not very brightly.

GLISTEN: Gleam or shimmer, as a wet, oily surface does.

SHIMMER: Gleam tremulously or glisten.

These are of practically no use to EFL learners. As can be seen, the definitions are interchangeable and rely on
each other.

TYPICAL EFL DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS

GLITTER: Shine in a sparkling way.

GLEAM: Shine brightly as reflecting light or as very clean.

GLISTEN: Shimmer brightly as smooth, wet or oily.

SHIMMER: Shine with a fairly unsteady light.

These are slightly more helpful as all the definitions revolve around variations of shine.

TYPICAL EFL DICTIONARY DISTINGUISHING INFORMATION

GLITTER: Many little flashes.

GLEAM: Reflect / Clean

GLISTEN: Wet / Oily

SHIMMER: Unsteady / Soft light

Better still. A little over-simplified, a sanitised version of the truth but more user-friendly.

TYPICAL EFL DICTIONARY EXAMPLES

GLITTER: Star, Eyes, Diamonds, Career, Prize, Array.

GLEAM: White teeth, Car, Eyes, with excitement, Hair.

GLISTEN: Sweat on the face, eyes (with tears), dew drops on the grass.

GLIMMER: Lights (in the distance), of success / hope / interest.

SHIMMER: Moonlight on water.

GLOW: Embers / Ashes, Skin, Health, Praise, Tribute, Report, Terms.

This last approach is of greatest use. We go straight to the real, the probable, the typical and the frequent.
Students learn native-speaker phrases, and may or may not work back towards distinguishing definitions. As
with native speakers, knowledge of collocations may be enough to provide an instinct for what is correct. The
basis of teaching and learning is observation of used language. This procedure recognises that it is often
collocational field which distinguishes these groups of words which have similar meaning.