Word Confusion: Lightening versus Lightning

Posted November 9, 2012 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
15 Jan 2023

I’ve been seeing this word confusion lightening vs lightning quite a bit recently and I’m never quite sure if the character or situation is using bleach and lightening something or surviving a lightning storm. Of course, I suppose they could be getting a hair treatment . . .

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Lightening Lightning

Church festooned with lights for the holidays

Church Lightens Up for Feast by Micheal Scofield is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Saint Cajetan, the parish church in Hamrun, Malta, lightening up for San Gejtanu’s feast.


Lightning bolt over a town

Lightning is a U.S. Air Force photo by Edward Aspera, Jr., which is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Part of Grammar:
Morpheme: lighten


Noun 1, 2;
Verb 2, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: lighten
Gerund: lightening

Third person present verb: lightens
Past tense or past participle: lightened
Present participle: lightening

Adjective; Noun, uncountable; Verb, transitive

Plural for the noun: lightning

Third person present verb: lightnings
Past tense or past participle: lightninged
Present participle: lightning

Noun:
[Obstetrics] Drop in the level of the uterus during the last weeks of pregnancy as the head of the fetus engages in the pelvis 1

Make lighter in weight 2

Make brighter or lighter in color

Misspelling of “lightning”

Verb, intransitive:
Make or become lighter in weight, pressure, or severity 2

  • Make or become more cheerful or less serious

Make or become lighter or brighter

Verb, transitive:
Make or become lighter in weight, pressure, or severity 2

  • Make or become more cheerful or less serious
  • [Archaic] Enlighten spiritually
Adjective:
Very quick

Noun:
Occurrence of a natural electrical discharge of very short duration and high voltage between a cloud and the ground or within a cloud, accompanied by a bright flash and typically, also thunder

  • [Literary] A flash or discharge of lightning

Verb:
Emit or discharge of the sky

Examples:
Noun:
Henri is lightening my hair color tomorrow.

Getting rid of these heavy drapes is lightening up the room.

“At least tonight Marijke was on-line too, she saw with a lightening of her spirits” (McDermid).

Verb, intransitive:
The strain had lightened.

Robbie felt her spirits lightening a little.

The sky began lightening in the east

It was a lightening of her burden.

Verb, transitive:
Efforts were made to lighten the burden of regulation.

She attempted a joke to lighten the atmosphere.

She was lightening her hair.

Now the Lord lighten thee, thou art a great fool.

The bleach was lightening the fabric.

Adjective:
It was a lightning cure for his hangover.

It happened at lightning speed.

That boy could move like greased lightning.

Noun:
Lightning can hurt or kill if it hits.

You know what they say, lightning never strikes twice in the same place.

The lightning is so bright, it’s lightening up the night sky.

Hoo, boy, that boy is fast as greased lightning.

The sky was a mass of black cloud out of which lightnings flashed.

That Bessie Mae still got that white lightning a’ her’n?

Verb:
What’s a person to do when it starts to lightning?

If it starts to lightning, we’d better go inside.

“Or if it thundered and lightninged, Aunt Frances always dropped everything she might be doing and held Elizabeth Ann tightly in her arms until it was all over” (Fisher).

Derivatives:
Noun: lightener
History of the Word:
  1. Mid-14th century as a verbal noun meaning the shedding of light.
  2. 1520s from lighten meaning alleviation of weight (literal and figurative).
Middle English was when lightening evolved into lightning. Today lightening would be considered a misspelling.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Lightening versus Lightning

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Fisher, Dorothy Canfield. Understood Betsy. Originally published in 1916. Digireads.com, 2004. <https://amzn.to/3HkSGeC>. Ebook.

McDermid, Val. The Last Temptation. Minotaur Book, 2010. <https://amzn.to/3HdLl0j>. Ebook.

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Pinterest Photo Credits

Alice as Bride of Frankenstein and Zipper-Eye Paula, <https://visualhunt.com/f2/photo/5134990965/360bd84d3f/>, 4, Jonathan Ross’s Hallowe’en Party, Hampstead, London, UK, by gruntzooki, <https://visualhunt.com/author/bba991>, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via VisualHunt. Lightning over Las Cruces, New Mexico, is a U.S. Air Force photo by Edward Aspera, Jr., which is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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