gleam
/ɡlim/noun, verb
gleam is spelled G-L-E-A-M. The wrong spelling people search most is gleem: about 320 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Gleam is a noun meaning “An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived”. The plural of gleam is gleams.
How many letters and syllables are in gleam?
| Letters | 5: G-L-E-A-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,017th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, gleem, about 320 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell gleam?
Gleam is spelled G-L-E-A-M. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for gleam in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is gleam?
Gleam appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,017th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gleam?
- UK /ɡliːm/
- US /ɡlim/
Gleam has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gleam.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gleam?
7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gleam from its last stressed vowel (/im/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gleam
- gleams plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- gleaming participle, present
- gleamed participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gleam mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived.
- 2
An indistinct sign of something; a glimpse or hint.
The rescue workers preserved a gleam of optimism that the trapped miners might still survive.
- 3
A bright, but intermittent or short-lived, appearance of something.
- 4
A look of joy or liveliness on one's face.
- 5
obsoleteSometimes as hot gleam: a warm ray of sunlight; also, a period of warm weather, for instance, between showers of rain.
- 6
obsoleteBrightness or shininess; radiance, splendour.
verb
- 1
Chiefly in conjunction with an adverb: to cause (light) to shine.
- 2
To shine, especially in an indistinct or intermittent manner; to glisten, to glitter.
- 3
To be strongly but briefly apparent.
- 4
obsoleteOf a hawk or other bird of prey: to disgorge filth from its crop or gorge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gleam in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | miroitement, rayon, reflet , luire |
| German | Schein, Schimmer , schimmern , Funke , aufblitzen |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gleam come from?
From Middle English glem, gleam, gleme (“shaft of light; part of a comet’s tail; reflected sparkle; dawn; daylight; radiance (physical or spiritual); something fleeting”), from Old English glǣm (“gleam”), from Proto-Germanic *glaimiz (“brightness; splendour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).