PHOSPHORESCENCE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does phosphorescence mean? 

• PHOSPHORESCENCE (noun)
  The noun PHOSPHORESCENCE has 1 sense:

1. a fluorescence that persists after the bombarding radiation has ceased

  Familiarity information: PHOSPHORESCENCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PHOSPHORESCENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fluorescence that persists after the bombarding radiation has ceased

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("phosphorescence" is a kind of...):

fluorescence (light emitted during absorption of radiation of some other (invisible) wavelength)

Derivation:

phosphoresce (to exhibit phosphorescence)

phosphorescent (emitting light without appreciable heat as by slow oxidation of phosphorous)

 Context examples 

We all followed his movements with our eyes, for undoubtedly some nervousness was growing on us, and we saw a whole mass of phosphorescence, which twinkled like stars.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He instanced a snake, the cast skin of which, deep purple in color, was fifty-one feet in length, and mentioned a white creature, supposed to be mammalian, which gave forth well-marked phosphorescence in the darkness; also a large black moth, the bite of which was supposed by the Indians to be highly poisonous.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)