reflect

To show someone's feelings, ideas, or situation, or to match what something is really like.

• Her face reflected her worry.
• The results reflect a change in public opinion.
• Does this report accurately reflect the situation?

Similar words: show, represent, express

Common phrases: reflect someone's views, reflect reality, reflect the changes, reflect someone's feelings

To send light back from a surface, making light or an image visible.

• Mirrors reflect light.
• The lake reflected the blue sky.
• These bright strips reflect car headlights at night.

Similar words: send back, mirror

Opposites: absorb

Common phrases: reflect light, reflect an image, reflect someone's face, reflect the sky

To think carefully about something, especially your experiences or actions.

• I need time to reflect.
• She reflected on the day's events.
• Have you reflected on why the plan failed?

How to use it: reflect on/upon something (She reflected on her years abroad.); reflect on how/what/why… (He reflected on what he could have done differently.)

Similar words: think carefully, consider, ponder

Common phrases: reflect on something, reflect upon something, time to reflect

If light or sound does this, it hits a surface and travels back away from it.

• Light reflects off the water.
• The sound reflected from the stone walls.
• Sunlight was reflecting off the windows into my eyes.

How to use it: reflect off/from something (Sound reflects off the walls of the tunnel.)

Similar words: bounce back

Common phrases: reflect off something, reflect from something, reflect back

To appear as an image in a mirror, water, or another shiny surface.

• The moon reflected in the lake.
• Her face reflected from the dark window.
• Colored lights reflect in the wet street after rain.

How to use it: reflect in/from something (The moon reflected in the still pond.)

Similar words: be mirrored

Common phrases: reflect in water, reflect from glass, reflect in something