lightning vs lightening
Definitions
noun
- the flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more
- abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light
Examples
The long punishing jaws of a borzoi can snatch up small and not-so-small varmints both wild or domestic with lightning speed.
The uncertain flicker of the flames and sparks from our beacon (which, though itself invisible, darkened and lightened like sheet lightning), the dismal umbery glimmer of the waning moon, and the pale approach of day over the mountains to the east, made the face appear almost ghastly.
But the demands of success hit them like a bolt of lightning.
Definitions
noun
- changing to a lighter color
- descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity that occurs late in pregnancy; the fetus is said to have dropped
Examples
A reaction induced on the laboratory bench may, like yeast in inert dough, leaven the whole of mankind, lightening and lifting it to heights undreamed of by its ancestors.
We live in Georgia where it gets unreasonably hot in the summers....need less to say my story involves, lightening, a burned out transformer, an air conditioner crame and 98 degree heat.
And a most enlightening experience it is.
