1
as in perching
to come to rest after descending from the air
a flock of eight swans circled above, then alighted on the pond
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in descending
to come down from something (as a vehicle)
as she alighted from the train, she momentarily lost her footing
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of alighting
Say each word was a bird—alighting briefly, out of reach and then gone again.
—
Leila Chatti
september 5, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
The second was to build what amounts to a nonflammable moat around a home to prevent embers from alighting on anything next to a house that could burn and ignite the structure.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025
Sound of Falling skips back and forth through time, alighting on moments of both horror and grace across a century in the lives of four women—adolescent and adult—inhabiting the same unsettled spaces.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Aug. 2025
Leila Chatti
september 5, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
The second was to build what amounts to a nonflammable moat around a home to prevent embers from alighting on anything next to a house that could burn and ignite the structure.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025
Sound of Falling skips back and forth through time, alighting on moments of both horror and grace across a century in the lives of four women—adolescent and adult—inhabiting the same unsettled spaces.
—Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for alighting
Verb
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There have been many previous perching drone designs, but these typically have hooks or grasping claws to hold on to branches or powerlines, or use magnets or gecko-like feet to attach to vertical surfaces.—
David Hambling,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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More than 2,200 elite track and field athletes are descending on Tokyo for the upcoming world championships, but Cooper Lutkenhaus might be the only one to pack homework.—
George Ramsay,
CNN Money,
12 Sep. 2025
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Some lava tubes that wrap across the surface of the Red Planet could make perfect protective shells to position prefabricated human habitats transported aboard the massive Starship capsules that are now counting down to descending on Mars.—
Kevin Holden Platt,
Forbes.com,
9 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Their client’s search stayed pretty close to home, with the bank looking at another Broadway property before landing on the 341-351 site, Tyler said.—
Matthew Geiger,
Denver Post,
10 Sep. 2025
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As part of the airport’s nearly $4 billion Terminal 1 renovation project, local restaurants, cafes, fast food chains and specialty stores are landing inside.—
Carlos Rico,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The new cleat should be particularly appealing to racers – who need to snap back in as quickly as possible after dismounting – and to riders who are intimidated by the learning curve involved in using clipless pedals for the first time.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
28 Aug. 2025
Verb
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There were men sitting at tables in front of what must have been a bar, three little boys who stopped playing on the pebble beach to watch me, two women also disembarking with baskets and packages from their shopping in Como.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Sep. 2025
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The other was a sailor who had fallen between two ships while disembarking one and boarding another.—
Curtis Bunn,
NBC news,
27 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Alighting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/alighting. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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