✨📕 The NEW Collegiate Dictionary, 12th Edition Over 5,000 words added — Learn More!
✨📕 The NEW Collegiate Dictionary — Learn More!

illume

verb

il·​lume i-ˈlüm How to pronounce illume (audio)
illumed; illuming
Synonyms of illumenext

transitive verb

: illuminate

Synonyms of illume

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of illume in a Sentence

a favorite line of an Eastern Church hymn reads, “through fast-closed doors Thou camest Thy Disciples to illume” during the vigil service the church's Gothic interior was illumed by the light of hundreds of tapers

Word History

Etymology

perhaps short for illumine

Note: Compare, however, Anglo-French illumer "to light, kindle," Anglo-French & continental Old French alumer, allumer "to set fire to, shed light on, light up" (going back to Vulgar Latin *allūmināre).

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of illume was in 1602

Rhymes for illume

See All Rhymes for illume

Browse Nearby Words

illuk
illume
illuminability
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Illume.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illume. Accessed 5 Jan. 2026.

Copy Citation

Share

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Buck Naked' or 'Butt Naked'?

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What’s the difference between ‘cemetery’ and ‘graveyard’?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ten Kinds of Happiness

Words That Turned 100 in 2025

17 Words for Dog Breeds

Skibidi, Mog & More: Gen Alpha Slang

And So It Begins: 9 Words for Beginnings
See More

Popular

See More

'Buck Naked' or 'Butt Naked'?

Ten Kinds of Happiness

Words That Turned 100 in 2025
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
colorful-umbrella-among-black-umbrellas
Weather Words Can you handle the (barometric) pressure?
See All