illuminate

Word family

il·lu·mi·nate /ɪˈluːməneɪt, ɪˈljuː- $ ɪˈluː-/ (also illumine) verb [transitiveT]

1 LIGHTto make a light shine on something, or to fill a place with light 照射，照亮，照明

A single candle illuminated his face.

一支蜡烛照亮了他的脸。

At night the canals are beautifully illuminated.

晚上运河灯火辉煌，美景毕现。

2 formalCLEAR/EASY TO UNDERSTAND to make something much clearer and easier to understand 阐明，解释〔某事物〕；使易懂

The report illuminated the difficult issues at the heart of science policy.

报告阐明了科学方针核心部分的难点。

Examples from the Corpus

illuminate• Annotated, logged and indexed, his book scarcely illuminated Belushi's demons, or the system that supposedly destroyed him.• The room was illuminated by candles.• A small path was illuminated by low orange lamps concealed in the flower beds.• Down below, he could see the single torch beam which illuminated Devlin, the girl and Gilbert.• Small lights illuminate different points on the map.• The story of Ruth illuminates for me the unbridgeable difference, rather than the similarity, between her situation and mine.• But their worry is focused like a hot, illuminating light in the right ways.• The blazing fire illuminated the china ornaments above the hearth.• Newly discovered artifacts may help illuminate the culture of the Aztecs.• There are a number of ways in which one may use the individual pinpoints of light to illuminate the territory between them.

Origin illuminate

(1400-1500) Latin past participle of illuminare, from lumen “light”

Chinese

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