LUMINESCENCE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Luminescence

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/lˌumənˈɛsəns/ Listen

noun

Luminescence n.

(Physics) Any emission of light not ascribable directly to incandescence, and therefore occurring at low temperatures, as in phosphorescence and fluorescence or other luminous radiation resulting from vital processes, chemical action, friction, solution, or the influence of light or of ultraviolet or cathode rays, etc.

(Zool.)

(a)

The faculty or power of producing light by biological processes, as in the firefly and glowworm. Also called bioluminescence.

(b)

The light produced by biological or biochemical processes. Also called bioluminescence.

See images of 'Luminescence'

Etymology of 'Luminescence'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Luminescence" Quotes from Famous Books

... was made in daylight. I was aloft in my swooper at the time, hanging motionless about a mile up. Below, the groundships looked like a number of oval lozenges gliding across a map, each surrounded by a circular halo of luminescence that was its ...

— The Airlords of Han • Philip Francis Nowlan

... candle, lantern, head-light, cresset; publicity, public notice; phosphorescence, luminescence; aureole, halo, nimbus, aureola, glory. Associated Words: photology, photologist, photophobia, catoptrics, ...

— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... The luminescence, therefore, is controlled by the respiratory organs and the work produced is an oxidization. The white sheet supplies the oxidizable matter and the thick air-tube spreading into a tufty bush distributes the flow of air ...

— The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles • Jean Henri Fabre