Blink

How to spell blink

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blink

What does blink mean?

1. verbTo shut and open the eyes quickly, or for a light to flash on and off.
2. nounA quick closing and opening of the eyes, or a very brief moment of time.

Blink in a sentence

• verb

  The bright stage lights made her blink repeatedly.

• noun

  The whole accident happened in the blink of an eye.

• verb

  The dashboard warning will blink until the fault is fixed.

• noun

  A single blink cleared the dust from his vision.

Where does blink come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Blink emerged in Middle English around the late fourteenth century, apparently as a variant of the older verb 'blenk', and it sits in the same Germanic family as Middle Dutch 'blinken', meaning 'to shine' or 'to gleam', and the related German 'blinken', 'to glint or twinkle'. The earliest senses were tied to light: to blink was to give a sudden gleam or to glance briefly, and only later did the meaning settle on the quick shutting and opening of the eyes. The shift makes sense, since a fluttering eyelid and a flickering light both involve something appearing and vanishing in an instant. The word is a close cousin of 'blank', and both seem to trace back to a notion of pale, gleaming whiteness. Because the word is short, phonetic, and entirely native in feel, the spelling holds few surprises; the only point to watch is the 'nk' cluster, where the spoken 'ng' sound is written with a plain 'n'.

How the word is built

• blink (single Germanic root meaning to gleam or shine, later to open and shut the eyes)