The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 5 letter word NEON LIGHT
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More clues leading to the result NEON LIGHT
- What may shine in darkness covering one shimmering lake?
- Variable in length, containing nothing that’s illuminating
- One's taken wrong line in the dark, lacking this?
- Bright sign takes energy working long into dark
- Source of illumination in the long run
- ‘Knight time’ — humorous feature in advertising?
- In darkness, lone maverick is something brilliantly colourful
- Darkness surrounding weirdly lone source of illumination
- What may shine in darkness around Noel, possibly?
- What is on in fluorescent bulbs essentially during darkness?
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "that’s illuminating" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case that’s illuminating = neon light.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.