What does aglow mean?
Word: Aglow
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Aglow means shining with warm light or colour; of a person's face, bright with happiness or excitement.
Synonyms: glowing, radiant, bright, alight
Antonyms: dark, dim, gloomy
Word origin: Formed in English in the 19th century from a- 'on, in' and glow.
How do you spell aglow?
Syllables: a - glow
Tricky part: The long o at the end is spelt ow, just as in glow. Agloe and aglo are the usual slips.
Watch out for: agloe, aglo
Memory tip: Aglow ends exactly the way glow does: think of a lamp's glow sitting at the end of the word.
Aglow in a sentence
Example 1: The wedding hall was aglow with strings of fairy lights.
Example 2: Her face was aglow when her name was called for the prize.
Example 3: By six o'clock the western sky was aglow with orange light.
Fun Fact
Aglow, ablaze, ajar and asleep usually come after a verb (the room was aglow); putting them before a noun, as in an aglow room, sounds wrong to most speakers.
Practise the CREST Way
Sound Check
Which word does not rhyme with aglow?
a) although
b) below
c) outgrow
d) allow
Show answer
d) allow. Allow ends with the ow of cow; the others end like snow.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with the correct options:
1. aglow 2. ajar 3. aloft a. slightly open b. shining with light c. high up in the air
a) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
b) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
c) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
d) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
Show answer
c) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c. A lamp-lit room is aglow, a door left a little open is ajar, and a kite in the sky is aloft.
Spell Spies
Choose the misspelt word/s in the given sentence:
On the night of the lantern parade, the riverbank was agglow with thousands of lamps, and the river reflectted every flame.
a) agglow and reflectted
b) riverbank and reflectted
c) only riverbank
d) only agglow
Show answer
a) agglow and reflectted. Aglow has a single g after the a, and reflected has just one t before ed.
Word Champ
Choose the correct word for the blank:
As the sun set over the Rann of Kutch, the white salt flats were ___ with pink and orange light.
a) aloof
b) astray
c) aglow
d) askew
Show answer
c) aglow. Only aglow describes something shining with colour; aloof, askew and astray mean distant, crooked and lost.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Someone aglow with pride is ___.
a) very tired
b) quietly angry
c) slightly nervous
d) clearly very pleased
Show answer
d) clearly very pleased
2. A forest described as aglow in autumn is full of ___.
a) thick grey morning fog
b) bright red and gold leaves
c) bare and broken branches
d) noisy flocks of crows
Show answer
b) bright red and gold leaves
