• IPA: /ˈtwɪŋkl̩/

twinkle (twinkles, present participle twinkling; past and past participle twinkled)

1. (of a source of light) to shine with a flickering light; to glimmer

   We could see the lights of the village twinkling in the distance.

   • These stars do not twinkle when viewed through telescopes that have large apertures.

   • 1814 July 6, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 270129598 ↗:

2. (chiefly, of eyes) to be bright with delight

   Synonyms: sparkle

   His shrewd little eyes twinkled roguishly.

3. to bat, blink or wink the eyes
   • 1922, Mrs. Juliet M. Hueffer Soskice, Chapters from Childhood: Reminiscences of an Artist's Granddaughter, page 165 ↗

     She smiled and gave a little nod and twinkled her eyes […]

   • The owl fell a moping and twinkling.

4. to flit to and fro
   • 1988, Dorothy Gilman, Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, page 190

     A butterfly twinkled among the vines […]

• glimmer
• scintillate
• wink

• French: briller
• Portuguese: cintilar, tremeluzir
• Russian: мерца́ть
• Spanish: titilar

• French: briller
• Russian: сия́ть
• Spanish: fulgurar, refulgir

• French: cligner
• German: zwinkern
• Russian: мига́ть

• French: virevolter
• Russian: порха́ть

twinkle (plural twinkles)

1. a sparkle or glimmer of light
   • , "Text, Discourse, and Process",

     Soon the rocket was out of sight, and the flame was only seen as a tiny twinkle of light.

2. a sparkle of delight in the eyes.

   He was a rotund, jolly man with a twinkle in his eye.

3. a flitting movement
   • , "Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell",

     I saw the twinkle of white feet,

4. (colloquial) A brief moment; a twinkling.
5. (childish) The female genitalia.

   The popular Swedish cartoon song about genitals was translated as "Willie and Twinkle".

• Russian: мерца́ние

• Russian: сия́ние

• Russian: порха́ние