incandescent

¹in·can·des·cent

adjective \-s^ənt\

Definition of INCANDESCENT

1

a : white, glowing, or luminous with intense heat

b : strikingly bright, radiant, or clear

c : marked by brilliance especially of expression <incandescent wit>

d : characterized by glowing zeal : ardent <incandescent affection>

2

a : of, relating to, or being light produced by incandescence

b : producing light by incandescence

— in·can·des·cent·ly adverb

Examples of INCANDESCENT

1. <sitting in darkness, except for the incandescent coals of our campfire>
2. <a speaker incandescent with righteous anger over the treatment of the refugees>

Origin of INCANDESCENT

probably from French, from Latin incandescent-, incandescens, present participle of incandescere to become hot, from in- + candescere to become hot, from candēre to glow — more at candid

First Known Use: 1794

Related to INCANDESCENT

Synonyms

beaming, bedazzling, brilliant, candescent, clear, dazzling, effulgent, fulgent, glowing, bright, lambent, lucent, lucid, luminous, lustrous, radiant, refulgent, sheeny, shining, shiny, splendid

Antonyms

dim, dull, lackluster, unbright, unbrilliant

Related Words

ablaze, ardent, blazing, burning, combusting, fiery, flaming, red-hot; agleam, aglitter, blinding, coruscant, flaring, flashing, flickering, gemmy, glancing, glaring, gleaming, glimmering, glinting, glistening, glistering, glittering, scintillant, scintillating, shimmering, shimmery, sparkling, sunny, twinkling, winking; burnished, polished, shined; superbright, ultrabright

Near Antonyms

blackened, dark, darkened, darkish, darkling, darksome, dimmed, dusky, gloomy, lightless, murky, obscure, obscured, pitch-black, pitch-dark, somber (or sombre), sunless, tenebrous, unlit; cloudy, shadowlike, shadowy, shady; gray (also grey), leaden, pale, palish

Other Physics Terms

amplitude, centrifugal, centripetal, convection, gradient, hysteresis, kinetic, lase, quantum

²incandescent

noun

Definition of INCANDESCENT

: lightbulb a

First Known Use of INCANDESCENT

1900

Other Electrical Engineering Terms

feedback, fuse, noise, resonance

Rhymes with INCANDESCENT

acquiescent, adolescent, arborescent, Fertile Crescent, opalescent, prepubescent, viridescent