darken vs sparkle

darken

verb
  • To make dark or darker by reducing light. 

  • To become gloomy, darker in mood. 

  • To render gloomy, darker in mood. 

  • To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible. 

  • To become dark or darker (having less light). 

  • To make dark or darker in colour. 

  • To blind, impair the eyesight. 

  • To become dark or darker in colour. 

  • To be blinded, lose one’s eyesight. 

  • To make foul; to sully; to tarnish. 

  • To get dark (referring to the sky, either in the evening or as a result of cloud). 

sparkle

verb
  • To shine as if throwing off sparks; to emit flashes of light; to scintillate; to twinkle 

  • To manifest itself by, or as if by, emitting sparks; to glisten; to flash. 

  • To emit sparks; to throw off ignited or incandescent particles 

  • To emit little bubbles, as certain kinds of liquors; to effervesce 

  • To emit in the form or likeness of sparks. 

noun
  • Brilliance; luster. 

  • Liveliness; vivacity. 

  • The quality of being sparkling or fizzy; effervescence. 

  • A little spark; a scintillation. 

How often have the words darken and sparkle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )