| English Dictionary |
BRIGHT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does bright mean?
• BRIGHT (adjective)
The adjective BRIGHT has 10 senses:
1. emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts
2. having strong or striking color
3. characterized by quickness and ease in learning
4. having lots of light either natural or artificial
5. made smooth and bright by or as if by rubbing; reflecting a sheen or glow
6. splendid
7. not made dim or less bright
8. clear and sharp and ringing
9. characterized by happiness or gladness
10. likely to turn out well in the future
Familiarity information: BRIGHT used as an adjective is familiar.
• BRIGHT (adverb)
The adverb BRIGHT has 1 sense:
1. with brightness
Familiarity information: BRIGHT used as an adverb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: brightest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts
Context example:
a bright sunlit room
Similar:
iridescent; nacreous; opalescent; opaline; pearlescent (having a play of lustrous rainbow colors)
twinkling (shining intermittently with a sparkling light)
silver; silvern; silvery (having the white lustrous sheen of silver)
shimmery (glistening tremulously)
self-luminous (having in itself the property of emitting light)
satiny; silken; silklike; silky; sleek; slick (having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light)
noctilucent (shining or glowing by night)
lurid (shining with an unnatural red glow as of fire seen through smoke)
glistening; glossy; lustrous; sheeny; shining; shiny (reflecting light)
glimmery (shining softly and intermittently)
ardent (glowing or shining like fire)
brilliant (full of light; shining intensely)
bright as a new penny ((metaphor) shining brightly)
blazing; blinding; dazzling; fulgent; glaring; glary (shining intensely)
beaming; beamy; effulgent; radiant; refulgent (radiating or as if radiating light)
beadlike; beady; buttonlike; buttony (small and round and shiny like a shiny bead or button)
aglitter; coruscant; fulgid; glinting; glistering; glittering; glittery; scintillant; scintillating; sparkly (having brief brilliant points or flashes of light)
aglow; lambent; lucent; luminous (softly bright or radiant)
agleam; gleaming; nitid (bright with a steady but subdued shining)
Attribute:
brightness; brightness level; light; luminance; luminosity; luminousness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Antonym:
dull (emitting or reflecting very little light)
Derivation:
brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Having strong or striking color
Synonyms:
Context example:
a bird with vivid plumage
Similar:
colorful; colourful (having much or varied color)
Derivation:
brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Characterized by quickness and ease in learning
Synonyms:
bright; smart
Context example:
smart children talk earlier than the average
Similar:
intelligent (having the capacity for thought and reason especially to a high degree)
Derivation:
brightness (intelligence as manifested in being quick and witty)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Having lots of light either natural or artificial
Context example:
a stage bright with spotlights
Similar:
light (characterized by or emitting light)
Derivation:
brightness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Made smooth and bright by or as if by rubbing; reflecting a sheen or glow
Synonyms:
bright; burnished; lustrous; shining; shiny
Context example:
shiny black patents
Similar:
polished (perfected or made shiny and smooth)
Derivation:
brightness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Splendid
Context example:
the bright pageantry of court
Similar:
glorious (having or deserving or conferring glory)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Not made dim or less bright
Synonyms:
bright; undimmed
Context example:
surprisingly the curtain started to rise while the houselights were still undimmed
Derivation:
brightness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Clear and sharp and ringing
Synonyms:
bright; brilliant
Context example:
the brilliant sound of the trumpets
Similar:
reverberant (having a tendency to reverberate or be repeatedly reflected)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Characterized by happiness or gladness
Context example:
all the world seems bright and gay
Similar:
happy (enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Likely to turn out well in the future
Synonyms:
Context example:
a hopeful new singer on Broadway
Similar:
auspicious (auguring favorable circumstances and good luck)
Derivation:
brightness (intelligence as manifested in being quick and witty)
Sense 1
Meaning:
With brightness
Synonyms:
bright; brightly; brilliantly
Context example:
the windows glowed jewel bright
Context examples
But presently I forget all of watching; and when I sudden remember that I watch, I find her lying quiet, but awake, and looking at me with so bright eyes.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
“Look, mother,” said the man, “at the beautiful bird that is singing so magnificently; and how warm and bright the sun is, and what a delicious scent of spice in the air!”
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
It bid fair to destroy for me all that was best and brightest in life.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
"You're not her Klondike brother!" Madge cried, her eyes bright with interest, "about whom we've heard so much?"
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Scattered around were many houses made entirely of china and painted in the brightest colors.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
He comes to see you, along with Mas'r Davy, on the brightest night of your uncle's life as ever was or will be, Gorm the t'other one, and horroar for it!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The debris field of very fine dust was likely created from collisions among developing infant planets near the star, evidenced by a bright ring of dusty debris seen 7 billion miles from the star.
(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)
With the newcomers hopeless and forlorn, and the old team worn out by twenty-five hundred miles of continuous trail, the outlook was anything but bright.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
One of the most common ladybird species is bright red, and goes untouched by great tits.
(Birds learn from each other’s ‘disgust’, enabling insects to evolve bright colours, University of Cambridge)
To the right of the dark feature are bright white "companion clouds."
(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"The dog does not catch further that its leash" (Breton proverb)
"The cure for fate is patience." (Arabic proverb)
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." (Corsican proverb)