luminous
adj/ˈluːmɪnəs/
Etymology Borrowed from Middle French lumineus, from Latin lūminōsus.
1
Emitting light; glowing brightly; shining.
- The moon, which had been slowly ascending, now shone through an open space between the trees; and the rippling waters of the brook gave back her light in luminous vibrations.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 21:
- The bonfire in his heart made luminous the rose-tan in his cheek.1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter [HTTP://GUTENBERG.NET.AU/EBOOKS06/0608511H.HTML CHAPTER 11].”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:
1 more example
- When approaching the Laughead household, she claimed to have previously met Charles Laughead and to recently have experienced a mystical dream in which a mysterious, luminous man rescued her from a flood (Williams 1954).2025 November 4, Thomas Kelly, “Debunking “When Prophecy Fails””, in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, volume 62, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 3:
2
Brightly illuminated.
3
Clear; enlightening; easy to understand.
- a luminous explanation
- Derived terms
- fast-evolving luminous transient, hyperluminous, luminosity, luminous energy, luminous flux, luminous intensity, luminously, luminousness, non-luminous, nonluminous, overluminous, radio-luminous, self-luminous, subluminous, superluminous, transient luminous event, ultraluminous, underluminous, unluminous
- Related terms
- illuminate, lumic, luminal