albedo

[ al-bee-doh ]

/ ælˈbi doʊ /

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noun, plural al·be·dos.

Astronomy. the ratio of the light reflected by a planet or satellite to that received by it.

Meteorology. such a ratio for any part of the earth's surface or atmosphere.

pith (def. 2).

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Origin of albedo

First recorded in 1855–60; from Late Latin albēdō “white (color), whiteness,” equivalent to alb(us) “white” + -ēdō noun suffix; cf. torpedo

Words nearby albedo

albarium, albata, albatross, albatross around one's neck, Al-Battani, albedo, albedometer, Albee, Albee, Edward, albeit, Albemarle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use albedo in a sentence

Decreased cloudiness over the eastern Pacific isn’t the only thing trimming Earth’s reflectance, or albedo, says Shiv Priyam Raghuraman, an atmospheric scientist at Princeton University.
Earth is reflecting less light. It’s not clear if that’s a trend|Sid Perkins|October 14, 2021|Science News
Dark roads, roofs and other building materials also have a lower albedo, meaning they reflect less sunlight.
Explainer: Urban heat islands and how to cool them|Bethany Brookshire|August 19, 2021|Science News For Students
This lowers their albedo — how much light they reflect — which can cause melting.
Explainer: What are aerosols?|Ellie Broadman|February 18, 2021|Science News For Students
Tar and asphalt have a low albedo, absorbing the sun’s light, mostly as heat.
Can wildfires cool the climate?|Ellie Broadman|February 18, 2021|Science News For Students

For the study, published Monday in Nature Astronomy, scientists used images collected by Hayabusa-2 to parse the rock’s albedo—or reflective properties—to uncover clues to the asteroid’s cosmic mashup.
Bright rocks on Ryugu reveal the asteroid’s violent past|Paola Rosa-Aquino|September 25, 2020|Popular-Science
There are other metals with a higher albedo, but none that give a richer effect.
The Misplaced Battleship|Harry Harrison (AKA Henry Maxwell Dempsey)
The electron telescope could detect its larger planets, especially a gas-giant fifth-orbit world of high albedo.
This World Is Taboo|Murray Leinster
If anything of the right size shows up, decelerate until we can get mass and albedo measurements.
Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet|Harold Leland Goodwin
If the asteroid's albedo matched it, that would be one piece of evidence.
Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet|Harold Leland Goodwin
Its "albedo," in other words, is 0·17, which is precisely that ascribed to the moon.
A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century|Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke

British Dictionary definitions for albedo

albedo

/ (ælˈbiːdəʊ) /

noun

the ratio of the intensity of light reflected from an object, such as a planet, to that of the light it receives from the sun

physics the probability that a neutron passing through a surface will return through that surface

Word Origin for albedo

C19: from Church Latin: whiteness, from Latin albus white

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for albedo

albedo

[ ăl-bē′dō ]

The fraction of the total light striking a surface that gets reflected from that surface. An object that has a high albedo (near 1) is very bright; an object that has a low albedo (near 0) is dark. The Earth's albedo is about 0.37. The Moon's is about 0.12.