Not easy! Glimmer: intermittent, weaker light (used more often to describe an idea - "a glimmer of hope") Shine: steady reflection Gleam: Intense steady reflection (shine +) and a bonus word to confuse things even more: Glisten: softly reflect light, often wet Mario's brand new Fiat gleamed! The tires glistened and the red paint shined brightly in the sun.

Shine can mean "reflect brightly," as in a shiny glass or metal object. it can also mean that the subject is a light source (the light bulb shined brightly in the window). Gleam I think of as mainly a word referring to reflective surfaces, like metal or a clean floor as the previous answer mentioned. Glimmer has a sense of flickering or movement, and also has a connotation of a small or dim light, like a gold coin might glimmer at the bottom of a dark pool of water.

That's a tricky one! Personally, I would say: shine = something like metal, reflective surface. "The stainless steel shines in the light." glimmer = makes me think of glitter ..but this isn't a verb I would use ever. The only thing I can think of is like a firefly that has a weaker light, "The firefly's light glimmered in the night sky." gleam = also a verb I don't use much, but you might say "The floor was gleaming, it was so clean!"