shine
/ʃaɪn/verb, noun
shine is spelled S-H-I-N-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, shine means “To emit or reflect light so as to glow” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in shine?
| Letters | 5: S-H-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,407th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is shine?
Shine appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th 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 shine?
- US /ʃaɪn/
Shine 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-shine.ogg, En-au-shine.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shine?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as shine from its last stressed vowel (/aɪn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hsien.
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 shine
- shines present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- shining participle, present
- shone participle, past
- shined participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To emit or reflect light so as to glow.
- 2
To reflect light.
- 3
To distinguish oneself; to excel.
My nephew tried other sports before deciding on football, which he shone at right away, quickly becoming the star of his school team.
- 4
To be effulgent in splendour or beauty.
- 5
To be eminent, conspicuous, or distinguished; to exhibit brilliant intellectual powers.
- 6
To be immediately apparent.
- 7
To create light with (a flashlight, lamp, torch, or similar).
I shone my light into the darkness to see what was making the noise.
- 8
To cause to shine, as a light or by reflected light.
in hunting, to shine the eyes of a deer at night by throwing a light on them
- 9
To cause (something) to be smooth and shiny by rubbing; put a shine on (something); polish (something).
He shined my shoes until they were polished smooth and gleaming.
- 10
To polish a cricket ball using saliva and one’s clothing.
noun
- 1
Brightness from a source of light.
- 2
Brightness from reflected light.
- 3
Excellence in quality or appearance; splendour.
- 4
Shoeshine.
- 5
Sunshine (typically in contrast with rain).
- 6
slangMoonshine; an illicitly brewed alcoholic drink.
- 7
derogatoryoffensiveslangA black person.
- 8
The amount of shininess on a cricket ball, or on each side of the ball.
noun
- 1
Acronym of single high-impulse noise event.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | briller, luire , éclat |
| German | leuchten, scheinen , Schein , glänzen , brillieren , Glanz |
| Portuguese | brilhar, luzir, resplandecer , brilho , cintilar , sobressair |
| Spanish | brillar, lucir , brillo , sobresalir , alumbrar |
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 shine come from?
From Middle English shinen, schinen (preterite schon, past participle schinen), from Old English sċīnan (“to shine, flash; be resplendent”; preterite sċān, past participle sċinen), from Proto-West Germanic *skīnan (“to shine”), from Proto-Germanic *skīnaną (“to shine”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).