Tenebrescence

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Reversible photochromism; the ability of a material to change colour when exposed to sunlight. uncountable, usually

    "Most fundamental investigations of tenebrescence have dealt exclusively with the alkali halides, since, in addition to their relative simplicity, they were readily available in large single crystals of high optical purity. The reversible discoloration of alkali halides was originally observed by E. Goldstein late in the last century."

Example

More examples

"Most fundamental investigations of tenebrescence have dealt exclusively with the alkali halides, since, in addition to their relative simplicity, they were readily available in large single crystals of high optical purity. The reversible discoloration of alkali halides was originally observed by E. Goldstein late in the last century."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin tenebrēscēns, present participle of tenebrēscere (“to grow dark”).

More for "tenebrescence"

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