各种英文单词“光”的区别

Dazzle, flash, flicker, glare, gleam, glimmer, glint, glitter, glisten, glister, glow, beam, shimmer, shine, sparkle, twinkle, wink以上单词都有\"发光\"的意思，在实际运用中有的相互间差别很大，有的很难区分。本文拟浅议以上\"发光\"词的准确用法。

flicker一词正是\"发出微光\"，指\"光线很弱好似微微晃动一样\"。由这个词我立即想到glitter, glow, gleam等同类词，再一回忆又想出了若干，最后借助thesaurus得出了以下英文词汇发光列表：

2. flash: to shine suddenly and brightly for a short time, or to make something shine in this way; If a light flashes or if you flash a light, it shines with a sudden bright light, especially as quick, regular flashes of light. 例：Lightning flashed overhead.

Flash是快速地发出强光，意为\"闪光\"，是闪光一族的普通 意义，后文还有多个闪光词汇。

3. flicker: to burn or shine with an unsteady light that goes on and off quickly; If a light or flame flickers, it shines unsteadily. 例：The overhead lights flickered momentarily.

Flicker也是闪光，但是与flash闪得不同。Flash是闪出强 光，闪一下马上消失，再接着闪出强光，比如打雷之前的闪电就 是典型的flash；flicker也是\"闪光门\"高手，可是它只能闪出不 太强的光，并且极不稳定，闪光时忽明忽暗，译为\"闪烁、摇曳\"， 这个词很浪漫，总令人想到Casablanca中迷人的汽车旅馆和那 对恋人一起试过的那个long, hot summer's night.

sparkle: to shine in small bright flashes; to shine brightly with small flashes of light；If something sparkles, it is clear and bright and shines with a lot of very small points of light.例：sparkling eyes；Her jewellery sparkled in the candle light；The sea sparkled in the sun；The crystal chandelier sparkled.

这是\"发火花, 闪耀\"之意，特指星星点点的闪光，比如春节

放烟火时，夜空中盛开的各式烟火图案就可以称作sparkling fireworks patterns，区别于glow, glitter等，特指\"数量多\"。 16. twinkle: if a star or light twinkles, it shines in the dark with an unsteady light; to shine with a light that keeps changing from bright to faint to bright again

例：Stars twinkled in the sky.；twinkling lights in the distance \"天上的星星不说话，地上的娃娃想妈妈，天上的星星眨呀眨，妈妈的心呀鲁冰花\" 小时候听过这首歌，因此对于星星眨眼睛印象特别深刻。这个眨眼睛就一定是twinkle了，不过人眨眼睛时可以说wink，星星就不可以。远处的灯光忽明忽暗，也说twinkle。比如农村人迷信，说看到了\"鬼火\"一闪一闪的（那其实是死人骨头中的磷遇空气中的氧而自燃，有动物衔着骨头走动因此看起来是一闪一闪的）。

1. dazzle:If a very bright light dazzles you, it stops you from seeing properly for a short time. 例：a deer dazzled by the headlights

Dazzle是\"刺眼、晃眼\"的意思，特别当光线照得人短时间看不清物体时使用，与下文其他的\"刺眼\"选手颇有区别。

4. glare: to shine with a very strong bright light which hurts your eyes; If the sun or a light glares, it shines with a very bright light which is difficult to look at; 例：The sun glared down on us.

这个已经不是闪光门弟子了，这是发出非常耀眼的光芒，让眼睛产生不适，且不适效果大大高于dazzle，有可能出现较长时间的失明。比如氧焊时，如果不戴眼罩看了那种强烈的白光后，

好一会儿看不见东西，那就是一种glaring light, 比dazzling light历害多了。

5. gleam: to shine softly [= glimmer]; If an object or a surface gleams, it reflects light because it is shiny and clean. 例：His teeth gleamed under his moustache；Blue-white moonlight gleamed through the window,throwing the shadows of the bars across the floor.淡蓝色的月光透过窗户照进房来，窗条的影子斜斜地映在地板上。

Gleam是\"发出微光\"，其微弱程度与下文要提及的glimmer相 同，似乎在写作中二者完全可以互换使用，不过“柯林斯”字典 告诉我们，glimmer的光有点unsteady，类似于flicker。gleam 是稳定的光线，不会晃动。

6. glimmer: If something glimmers, it produces or reflects a faint, gentle, often unsteady light; to shine with a light that is not very bright [= gleam]: a weak, glimmering light

朗文字典认为glimmer等于gleam，但是柯林斯和牛津皆认为glimmer含有unsteady之意，是to shine with a faint unsteady light，因此一定要与gleam区别开来。glimmer与flicker相近，也有“光线晃动”之意，但是没有flicker那么\"摇曳\"得历害：

A beam of gleaming light 一道微弱的光线

A beam of glimmering light 一束昏暗、摇曳的光线

7. glint: if a shiny surface glints, it gives out small flashes of light [= sparkle]; If something glints, it produces or reflects a quick flash of light. (WRITTEN);= glisten; to produce small bright flashes of light: 例：The sea glinted in the moonlight；The sun glinted on the windows；The gold rims of his spectacles glinted in the sun.

该词使用场景描述：一群孩子在草丛中玩耍时，突然一个小孩惊叫起来，\"看呀，前边草丛里有东西在发亮\"。众人走近一看，原来是一只银戒指；夏日某夜，有淡淡的月光，四周万籁俱寂，我心事重重，独自来到沙滩上，看着黑黝黝的海水，听着潮涨潮落出神。月亮渐升渐高，月入中天之时，月光不如先前一样昏暗，海面一下子亮了起来，我看见涨潮的时候，海边奔涌着浅灰色的浪花。

以上两个场景是我臆想的，都适用glint这个词。Glint的关键点是\"闪（泛）着微光\"，并且光线在变幻，我想到了李莫愁的\"冰魄银针\"在阳光下发出幽蓝幽蓝的光芒，煞是瘆人，这就是glinting 的光；小龙女的\"玉蜂针\"一定不是这种光，而是一种明亮得多的光，可用glowing或者glittering。突发奇想，glint是否有消极、否定之意呢？

比如李莫愁是坏人，她的暗器就发glinting的光，而小龙女是好人，并且这么多人喜爱她，因此她的暗器就不会发出glinting的光。呵呵，这纯属子虚乌有，又是我胡思乱想罢了。

8. glitter: to shine brightly with flashing points of light [= sparkle]；to shine brightly with little flashes of light, like a diamond SYN sparkle例：The ceiling of the cathedral glittered with gold；The river glittered in the sunlight.

Glitter一听就比glint, gleam, glimmer等感觉要好，“阳气”要大得多，是积极的、明亮的，正大光明的。其发光比较亮丽，常用于阳光照射下物体反光

9. glisten: to shine and look wet or oily; If something glistens, it shines, usually because it is wet

or oily例：Her eyes were glistening with tears；Sweat glistened on his forehead.；The road glistened wet after the rain；The boy's back was glistening with sweat；glistening black hair

这个词非常浪漫，非常美，往往与水、油等有关。发出的光令人感觉到湿漉漉的或者油亮油亮的。第1个例句非常棒，女孩珠泪莹然，楚楚动人的样子真的令英雄魂断，还有美女出浴之后，头发湿湿的，在灯光下就是glistening的感觉，这也令男人意乱情迷。此处glistened with tears就是那种\"闪着眼泪花的感觉\"；后句\"他的额头渗出了汗珠\"，下一句是\"雨后路面湿得发亮\"。想像一下，夏天雨过天晴之后，柏油路在阳光下湿湿的，亮亮的，空气是如此清新，真想在路上小跑一阵，贪婪地呼吸泥土和草地醉人的芬芳。

10. glister: (literary) to shine brightly with little flashes of light, like a diamond SYN glitter

这是一个文气词，常用在文学作品中，与glitter一样，都是指\"闪着明亮的光\"。

11. glow: to produce or reflect a soft steady light [= shine]；(especially of sth hot or warm) to produce a dull, steady light:例：The fireplace was still glowing with the remains of last night's fire；

The red tip of his cigarette was glowing in the dark；The strap has a fluorescent coating that glows in the dark.

Glow是指发出或者反射出一种柔和的光，一般都有强烈或者微弱的热量发出，例句中烟头在暗处发出的光，壁炉中燃烧的火发出的光，背包肩带上涂有荧光粉，在黑暗中发出的光，都是用glow。

12.beam: to send out a line of light, heat, energy etc;to produce a stream of light and/or heat 例：The morning sun beamed down on us；Light beamed through a hole in the curtain；The sun beamed through the clouds.

这个词只当发光讲，没有任何或者修饰意义，是最普通的发光。

13. shimmer: to shine with a soft light that looks as if it shakes slightly; to shine with a soft light that seems to move slightly 例：The sea was shimmering in the sunlight; The lake shimmered in the moonlight.

这个词超级浪漫，其浪漫程度与glisten有过之而无不及。它特指在光线的照耀下物体感觉在轻微晃动，如：月光下湖面平滑如镜，微风吹过，湖面荡起一阵涟漪，远远望去，整个湖水都

在月光中摇曳起来，这就是shimmering的效果，多么迷人啊，真想躺在天鹅绒一样光滑的湖面上，跟着月光一起摇动，然后进入梦乡。

14.shine: to produce bright light; to produce or reflect light; to be bright: 例：The sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky；The dark polished wood shone like glass；The sun was shining；The moon shone brightly in the sky.

这个词有时可与beam换用，但beam还可指发热、传导能量、无线电波等，而shine永远只能是发光，并且多为比较明亮的光。

17. wink: to shine with a light that flashes on and off[= blink]: to shine with an unsteady light; to flash on and off SYN blink: 例：We could see the lights of the ship winking in the distance.

Wink是人眨眼睛，也可指光线一闪一闪的，与blink相同，可是眨眼的含义还是有细微区别。Wink时有“暗示什么东东”之意，而blink只是普通的眨眼。比如，你和朋友约定一件事不能穿帮，朋友说到此事时你立即大眨其眼，暗示他不可点破，此处用wink而不用blink。表示光线一闪一闪时二者可以换用。