✅ Shining describes something that is radiant or bright, either literally or metaphorically (By the time he finished polishing them, his boots were shining).
✅ Incandescent describes something particularly bright (the incandescent light from the chandelier).
✅ Incandescent is a stronger word than shining, and suggests something so bright it may be difficult to look at (The performance was, in a word, incandescent).
✅ Shining and incandescent can also both describe a person who seems to glow with a certain emotion (incandescent joy; Her eyes were shining with rage).
Describe an incandescent night sky with the help of Grammar Coach.
✅ Fine describes something delicate, especially something extremely thin (The sewing thread was very fine).
✅ Gossamer describes something particularly light and delicate (Her gossamer wedding dress).
✅ Fine and gossamer both describe things that are especially thin or translucent (A fine, see-through fabric; I could barely see the gossamer threads).
✅ Gossamer generally suggests something even more delicate than fine does. Gossamer suggests something so fine it might have been made from spiderwebs. As a noun, it can refer to delicate spiderwebs themselves.
Describe some gossamer clouds with the help of Grammar Coach!
✅ Abruptly refers to something happening in a sudden or unexpected way (The rain stopped abruptly).
✅ Precipitously refers to something that rises or falls in a sudden, unexpected, and extreme way, akin to a steep rock face or precipice (Sales fell precipitously).
✅ Abruptly can refer to anything that happens suddenly (The car stopped abruptly), whereas precipitously often refers to the number of a given thing rising or falling dramatically: imagine a sudden steep drop in a line on a graph (During the pandemic, the inventory of cars dropped precipitously).
✅ Precipitously also suggests an element of danger or a lack of control (The mountain rose precipitously in front of them).
We think that your vocabulary will increase precipitously if you make a habit of checking out our synonyms!