Illuminate vs. Illustrate — What's the Difference?

Light up

Provide (a book, newspaper, etc.) with pictures

Decorate (a page or initial letter in a manuscript) with gold, silver, or coloured designs.

Serve as an example of

Help to clarify or explain

To clarify or explain, as by the use of examples or comparisons

To provide or brighten with light.

To serve as an example or clarification of

To decorate or hang with lights.

To provide (a text) with explanatory or decorative images

To make understandable; clarify

(Obsolete) To light up; illuminate.

To enlighten intellectually or spiritually; enable to understand

To present a clarification, example, or explanation.

To adorn (a page of a book, for example) with ornamental designs, images, or lettering in brilliant colors or precious metals.

(obsolete) To shed light upon.

To expose to or reveal by radiation.

(figurative) To clarify something by giving, or serving as, an example or a comparison.

One who has or professes to have an unusual degree of enlightenment.

To provide a book or other publication with pictures, diagrams or other explanatory or decorative features.

(transitive) To shine light on something.

(obsolete) To give renown or honour to; to make illustrious.

(transitive) To decorate something with lights.

To make clear, bright, or luminous.

To clarify or make something understandable.

To set in a clear light; to exhibit distinctly or conspicuously.

(transitive) To decorate the page of a manuscript book with ornamental designs.

To make clear, intelligible, or apprehensible; to elucidate, explain, or exemplify, as by means of figures, comparisons, and examples.

To make spectacular.

To adorn with pictures, as a book or a subject; to elucidate with pictures, as a history or a romance.

(intransitive) To glow; to light up.

To give renown or honor to; to make illustrious; to glorify.

(intransitive) To be exposed to light.

Illustrated; distinguished; illustrious.

To direct a radar beam toward.

Clarify by giving an example of

Someone thought to have an unusual degree of enlightenment.

Depict with an illustration

(obsolete) enlightened

E.g., illustrate a book with drawings

To make light; to throw light on; to supply with light, literally or figuratively; to brighten.

To light up; to decorate with artificial lights, as a building or city, in token of rejoicing or respect.

To adorn, as a book or page with borders, initial letters, or miniature pictures in colors and gold, as was done in manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

To make plain or clear; to dispel the obscurity to by knowledge or reason; to explain; to elucidate; as, to illuminate a text, a problem, or a duty.

To light up in token or rejoicing.

Enlightened.

One who is enlightened; esp., a pretender to extraordinary light and knowledge.

Make lighter or brighter;

Make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear;

Add embellishments and paintings to (medieval manuscripts)