noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The emission of light by a living organism (such as a firefly). countable, uncountable
2. 2
   luminescence produced by physiological processes (as in the firefly) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

fata morganafluorescencefox fireignis fatuusluminescencephosphor

Example

More examples

"The bioluminescence gave the sea an eerie glow."

Etymology

From bio- + luminescence.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.