incandescent

3 definitions found

incandescent - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Incandescent \In`can*des"cent\, a. [L. incandecens, -entis, p.
     pr. of incandescere to become warm or hot; pref. in- in +
     candescere to become of a glittering whiteness, to become red
     hot, incho. fr. candere to be of a glittering whiteness: cf.
     F. incandescent. See Candle.]
     White, glowing, or luminous, with intense heat; as,
     incandescent carbon or platinum; hence, clear; shining;
     brilliant.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Holy Scripture become resplendent; or, as one might
           say, incandescent throughout.            --I. Taylor.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Incandescent lamp, Incandescent light, Incandescent light bulb
      (Elec.), a kind of lamp in which the light is
        produced by a thin filament of conducting material, now
        usually tungsten, but originally carbon, contained in a
        vacuum or an atmosphere of inert gas within a glass bulb,
        and heated to incandescence by an electric current. It was
        inventerd by Thomas Edison, and was once called the
        Edison lamp; -- called also incandescence lamp, and
        glowlamp. This is one of the two most common sources of
        electric light, the other being the fluorescent light,
        fluorescent lamp or fluorescent bulb.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]

incandescent - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  incandescent
      adj 1: emitting light as a result of being heated; "an
             incandescent bulb" [syn: incandescent, candent]
      2: characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance;
         "an incandescent performance"

incandescent - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  82 Moby Thesaurus words for "incandescent":
     ablaze, afire, aflame, aflicker, aglow, alight, ardent, beaming,
     beamy, blazing, blushing, bright, bright and sunny, brilliant,
     burning, candent, candescent, comburent, conflagrant, effulgent,
     fiery, flagrant, flaming, flaring, flickering, flushing, fulgent,
     fuming, gleaming, gleamy, glinting, glowing, guttering, ignescent,
     ignited, illuminant, in a blaze, in a glow, in flames, inflamed,
     irradiative, kindled, lambent, lamping, light as day, live, living,
     lucent, luciferous, lucific, luciform, luminant, luminative,
     luminiferous, luminificent, luminous, lustrous, on fire, orient,
     radiant, red-hot, reeking, refulgent, rutilant, rutilous,
     scintillant, scintillating, shining, shiny, smoking, smoldering,
     sparking, starbright, starlike, starry, streaming, suffused, sunny,
     sunshiny, unextinguished, unquenched, white-hot