illumination

[ih-loo-muh-ney-shuhn]

noun

1. an act or instance of illuminating. illuminating.

2. the fact or condition of being illuminated.

3. a decoration of lights, usually colored lights.

4. Sometimes illuminations. an entertainment, display, or celebration using lights as a major feature or decoration.

5. intellectual or spiritual enlightenment.

   Synonyms: wisdom, insight, revelation, knowledge

6. Also called illuminance. Also called intensity of illumination. Optics.,  the intensity of light falling at a given place on a lighted surface; the luminous flux incident per unit area, expressed in lumens per unit of area.

7. a supply of light.

   a source of illumination.

8. decoration of a manuscript or book with a painted design in color, gold, etc.

9. a design used in such decoration.

illumination

/ ɪˌluːmɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

1. the act of illuminating or the state of being illuminated

2. a source of light

3. (often plural) a light or lights, esp coloured lights, used as decoration in streets, parks, etc

4. spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; insight or understanding

5. the act of making understood; clarification

6. decoration in colours, gold, or silver used on some manuscripts or printed works

7. physics another name (not in technical usage) for illuminance

Other Word Forms

• illuminational adjective
• nonillumination noun
• preillumination noun
• reillumination noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of illumination¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Medieval Latin illūminātiōn-, stem of illūminātiō “spiritual enlightenment,” from Latin: “illustriousness, glory”; illuminate ( def. ), -ion ( def. )

Example Sentences

She says the buildings themselves are familiar to her but the illumination changes them.

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Open, tennis stars shine under illumination designed to cut light pollution.

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Exquisite gowns and tiaras shine in the electric “display of illumination” – Bertha’s fancy description for strings of garden lights – brightening the sumptuous garden.

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This aspect of the franchise is begging for illumination and expansion.

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But the theater’s ability to turn family dysfunction, be it alcoholism, Alzheimer’s or just garden-variety existential agony, into entertainment and instant illumination, has long been a staple of the American stage.

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Related Words

• brightness