1
: the flashing of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity
also
: the discharge itself
2
: a sudden stroke of fortune
candidates … hoping for real lightning to strike—
Time
Time
: having or moving with or as if with the speed and suddenness of lightning
a lightning assault
Synonyms
Examples of lightning in a Sentence
Adjective
thoughts moving at lightning speed
he made a lightning dash for the goal
Recent Examples on the WebLee Billings, Scientific American, 21 Oct. 2024
Off to the northwest a bank of clouds lay just darker than the sky, still like a great animal waiting to spring, showing the sleepy fire of its eyes when the faint autumn lightning winked.
—Mark Athitakis, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2024
The book opens with a flight through a pretty frightening lightning storm.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2024
For a family of four that already has park tickets to Disney parks on either coast, buying lightning lanes for everyone to save time in line could easily cost more than $100 per day, depending on the season.
—Natasha Chen, CNN, 9 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for lightning 
Noun
And some of these emissions occur in mysterious, previously unrecognized patterns, split-second flickers that seem to spark ordinary lightning discharges.
—Lee Billings, Scientific American, 21 Oct. 2024
Off to the northwest a bank of clouds lay just darker than the sky, still like a great animal waiting to spring, showing the sleepy fire of its eyes when the faint autumn lightning winked.
—Mark Athitakis, The Atlantic, 10 Oct. 2024
The book opens with a flight through a pretty frightening lightning storm.
—Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 9 Oct. 2024
For a family of four that already has park tickets to Disney parks on either coast, buying lightning lanes for everyone to save time in line could easily cost more than $100 per day, depending on the season.
—Natasha Chen, CNN, 9 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for lightning
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lightning.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near lightning
Cite this Entry
“Lightning.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lightning. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
lightning
1 of 2 noun
light·ning
ˈlīt-niŋ 
: the flashing of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity from one cloud to another or between a cloud and the earth
also
: the discharge itself
lightning
2 of 2 adjective
: moving or done with or as if with the speed of lightning
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