n. 1
A sparkle or glimmer of light.
n. 2
A flitting movement.
v. 1
To shine with a flickering light; to glimmer.
We could see the lights of the village twinkling in the distance.
v. 2
To flit to and fro.

Related words

Forms

Plural: twinkles → flashes, moments, instants, minutes…
Past participle: twinkled
e.g. twinkled → winked, glimmered, flickered, shimmered…

Twinkle, Twinkling or Light?

Twinkle and twinkling are used of the intermittent light of the fixed stars.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: sec¹, jif¹
4 letters: tick¹, wink¹, flit¹
5 letters: light¹, flash¹, crack¹, spark¹, blink¹, flirt¹, gleam¹, twink¹, jiffy², glint¹, trice¹
6 letters: second², moment², minute², minnie², winkle²
7 letters: instant², glitter², sparkle², glimmer², flicker², flutter², shimmer², glisten², flitter, glister, flimmer
9 letters: sparkling², coruscate, fulgurate, nictitate
11 letters: scintillate
13 letters: scintillation

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (jiffy² = 2 syllables).