lighten vs illumine

lighten and illumine both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
lighten	No	No	Yes	No
illumine	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, illumine is a hyponym of lighten; that is, illumine is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than lighten:

Other hyponyms of lighten include irradiate, illume, illuminate, light, light up.

lighten (verb)	illumine (verb)
make more cheerful through the use of color	introduce light into
become lighter
alleviate or remove (pressure or stress) or make less oppressive
become more cheerful
reduce the weight on; make lighter
make more cheerful