scintillation
scin·til·lat·ion/ˌsɪn.təˈleɪ.ʃən/noun
scintillation is a noun meaning “A flash of light; a spark” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-C-I-N-T-I-L-L-A-T-I-O-N and has 4 syllables (scin·til·lat·ion), and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of scintillation is scintillations.
What does scintillation mean?
noun
- 1
A flash of light; a spark.
- 2
The twinkling of a star or other celestial body caused by turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere.
- 3
The flash of light produced by something (especially a phosphor) when it absorbs ionizing radiation.
- 4
A brief expression that is amusing or clever; witticism.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce scintillation?
- UK /ˌsɪn.tɪˈleɪ.ʃən/
- US /ˌsɪn.təˈleɪ.ʃən/
Scintillation has 4 syllables, split scin·til·lat·ion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-scintillation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of scintillation
- scintillations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is scintillation?
Scintillation appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 72,332nd 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).
Scintillation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense flash of light:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | scintillation |
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 scintillation come from?
From scintillate + -ion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).