fluorescent
Americanadjective
-
possessing the property of fluorescence; exhibiting fluorescence.
-
strikingly bright, vivid, or glowing.
plastic toys in fluorescent colors.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fluorescent
Explanation
A fluorescent bulb gets its light from mercury vapor inside a glass tube. The incandescent bulb — the kind associated with Thomas Edison — has a filament that glows when it's heated. You can also use fluorescent to describe something that's so vivid and bright it seems to give off light. Fluorescent is related to the word fluorspar, or fluorite, which is a mineral that glows. Notice the -u- in these words. Fluorescent comes from the Latin fluere "to flow" — fluorspar can be added to welding compounds, for instance, to make them flow more easily. Florescent, without a -u-, means "flowering," from Latin flor-, which is a completely different root.
Vocabulary lists containing fluorescent
Frindle
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The Lemonade War
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The Marvels
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability.
From Science Daily • Oct. 17, 2023
They were certainly match fit, tearing up songs like Crying Lightning and Fluorescent Adolescent, while allowing room for the more exploratory material from their latest album, The Car, to breathe and build.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2023
Fluorescent pigments absorbed blue-green light, which is the main wavelength that reaches into deeper water.
From Science Magazine • Jul. 19, 2022
Fluorescent compounds can also help shield living things from the harmful effects of UV rays — the same that cause skin damage to people — by absorbing them.
From New York Times • Sep. 2, 2021
Fluorescent lights hung over counters that ran the length of the room.
From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
