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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

highlight.

An area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhaɪlaɪt/UK/ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/US
  1. An area or a spot in a drawing, painting, or photograph that is strongly illuminated.

  2. An especially significant or interesting detail or event or period of time.

    figuratively
    Meeting my future wife was the highlight of my trip to Spain.
    We'll be broadcasting the news highlights every half an hour.
  3. A strand or spot of hair dyed a different color than the rest.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kewk- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kówkos Proto-Germanic *hauhaz Proto-West Germanic *hauh Old English hēah Middle English heigh English high English light English highlight From high + light.

verb/ˈhaɪlaɪt/UK/ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/US
  1. To make prominent; emphasize.

    transitive
  2. To be a highlight of.

    transitive
  3. To mark (important passages of text), e.g. with a fluorescent marker pen or in a wordprocessor, as a means of memory retention or for later reference.

    transitive
  4. To dye (part of the hair) a different color than the rest.

    transitive
  5. To seek the attention of (a user) on IRC by mentioning their name in a message, causing that message to appear highlighted on their screen.

    Internet · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kewk- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kówkos Proto-Germanic *hauhaz Proto-West Germanic *hauh Old English hēah Middle English heigh English high English light English highlight From high + light.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.