• home
  • vocab
  • tutoring
  • blog
  • help

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > UNDIMMED

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.



pronounce UNDIMMED:

UN DIMD
Your browser does not support the audio element.

connect this word to others:

I love the grand, dramatic word undimmed for its power to describe things by saying what hasn't happened to them, much like the words undeterred, unparalleled, and unprecedented.

Could you pick one of those four words, and use it to describe someone you know? You could start like this:

"They have an undimmed enthusiasm for..."

or "They are undeterred by..."

or "They have an unparalleled ability to..."

or "They have an unprecedented amount of..."

definition:

"Dim" comes from Old English, and "undimmed" first popped up in English in the 1700s.

When things dim, they get less bright, less strong, less clear, or less hopeful. 

So, undimmed things are the kind that stay bright, strong, clear, or hopeful, even over long stretches of time, or even during intense struggles, either of which could have easily caused them to darken, weaken, or become unclear or hopeless.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Past participle adjective: "Their laughter is undimmed;" "Their laughter is undimmed by hearing the joke for the sixth time."

Other forms: 

Dim, dimmed, dimming.

how to use it:

Pick the poetic, exciting, semi-common word "undimmed" when you want to call special attention to something bright or full of spirit, especially something that continues to burn brightly over time or through hardship.

You might talk about someone's undimmed strength, power, beauty, brilliance, wit, intellect, energy, talent, or appeal.

Or talk about an undimmed emotion, like hope, enthusiasm, admiration, devotion, ambition, or zeal.

Often we say something is undimmed through a period of time, or by some passage of time or other force. "Grandmother's memory remained undimmed through the decades, especially for people's names. She would ask me how my husband's brother's wife Emili was doing." "Her memory was undimmed by the passing of the decades."

examples:

"After dinner we walked under shockingly bright stars, undimmed by light pollution, listening to owls and the tinkle of bells from goats."
  — Stanley Reed, New York Times, 23 January 2013

"TV presenter Terry Nutkins, famous for appearances on BBC nature programmes like Animal Magic and The Really Wild Show, has died at the age of 66... Nutkins' love of animals was undimmed by an incident when, aged 15, he had the top joints of two of his fingers bitten off by a wild otter named Edal."
   — BBC, 7 September 2012

has this page helped you understand "undimmed"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "undimmed" without saying "still bright" or "still enthusiastic."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Someone or something's) (popularity, or love or enthusiasm for something) seems undimmed by (something bad)."

Example: "Our veterinarian's love for cats seems undimmed by the scratches all up and down his forearms."




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month: Poetic Connections!

Check out three snippets from a poem, along with three words we've studied—some beautiful, some outrageous—and decide which word you'll connect to each snippet. To see the definitions, highlight the hidden white text after each word. And to see an example, head here.

Try this last set today:

"The Garden by Moonlight" by Amy Lowell

Snippets:

1. "A black cat among roses"
2. "Firefly lights open and vanish"
3. "Moon-shimmer on leaves and trellises,
Moon-spikes shafting through the snow ball bush"

Words:
A. evanesce (meaning... to disappear quickly)
B. illustrious (meaning... bright and shining)
C. polychromatic (meaning... made of many colors)

To see one possible set of answers, scroll all the way down; if your answers don’t match these, that's fine: all that matters is that yours make sense to you.

review this word:

1. The opposite of UNDIMMED is DIMMED, meaning "darkened, or, figuratively, _____."

A. angered or enraged
B. weakened or disheartened
C. enriched or made more flavorful

2. Having seen a suite of enormous paintings by Hilma af Klint, Sebastian Smee wrote, "A week after I saw them, their _____ remains undimmed in my mind."

A. dizzying shape
B. pulsing loveliness
C. contemplative gloom




Answers to the review questions:
1. B
2. B

From the game:

I'd connect evanesce to snippet 2 for the bursts of firefly light; illustrious to snippet 3 for the glistening lights, although snippet 2 could also work; and polychromatic to snippet 1 for the image of the black cat against (maybe) pink, red, yellow, or white roses.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.



© Copyright 2025 | All rights reserved.