RADIANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does radiance mean? 

• RADIANCE (noun)
  The noun RADIANCE has 3 senses:

1. the amount of electromagnetic radiation leaving or arriving at a point on a surface

2. the quality of being bright and sending out rays of light

3. an attractive combination of good health and happiness

  Familiarity information: RADIANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RADIANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The amount of electromagnetic radiation leaving or arriving at a point on a surface

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

glow; glowing; radiance

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

light; visible light; visible radiation ((physics) electromagnetic radiation that can produce a visual sensation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "radiance"):

aureole; corona (the outermost region of the sun's atmosphere; visible as a white halo during a solar eclipse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being bright and sending out rays of light

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

effulgence; radiance; radiancy; refulgence; refulgency; shine

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

brightness (the location of a visual perception along a continuum from black to white)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "radiance"):

gleam; gleaming; glow; lambency (an appearance of reflected light)

luster; lustre; sheen; shininess (the visual property of something that shines with reflected light)

burnish; gloss; glossiness; polish (the property of being smooth and shiny)

Derivation:

radiant (radiating or as if radiating light)

radiate (cause to be seen by emitting light as if in rays)

radiate (send out rays or waves)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An attractive combination of good health and happiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

the radiance of her countenance

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

felicity; happiness (state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy)

good health; healthiness (the state of being vigorous and free from bodily or mental disease)

Derivation:

radiate (experience a feeling of well-being or happiness, as from good health or an intense emotion)

 Context examples 

This radiance did not stop at the wall.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

For if I could see this radiance, might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore among the marshes?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You will feel confident and proud of all you’ve done, and your bright radiance will attract others.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

All was in keeping with a solemn butler who appeared framed in the pink radiance of a tinted electrical light behind him.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was after supper, in his own sanctum—the room of the pink radiance and the innumerable trophies—that Lord John Roxton had something to say to us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This funny spectacle appeared to amuse the sun, for he burst out with such radiance that Jo woke up and roused her sisters by a hearty laugh at Amy's ornament.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Her black satin dress, her scarf of rich foreign lace, and her pearl ornaments, pleased me better than the rainbow radiance of the titled dame.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In those scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole busy panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, brilliant, many-pointed radiance.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Ordinarily grey and cold and harsh, they were now warm and soft and golden, and all a-dance with tiny lights that dimmed and faded, or welled up till the full orbs were flooded with a glowing radiance.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)