verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To give off light, including in the invisible electromagnetic radiation frequencies, or become luminescent. intransitive

   "Phosphorus will only begin to luminesce at a certain small pressure of oxygen."

2. 2
   be or become luminescent; exhibit luminescence wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

shine

Example

More examples

"Phosphorus will only begin to luminesce at a certain small pressure of oxygen."

Etymology

Back-formation from luminescent.

Related phrases

electromagnetic radiation

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