brightness
Americannoun
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the quality of being bright.
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Optics. the luminance of a body, apart from its hue or saturation, that an observer uses to determine the comparative luminance of another body. Pure white has the maximum brightness, and pure black the minimum brightness.
noun
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the condition of being bright
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physics a former name for luminosity
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psychol the experienced intensity of light
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of brightness
before 950; Middle English brihtnes, Old English beorhtnes. See bright, -ness
Vocabulary lists containing brightness
Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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Physics - Introductory
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Physics - Middle School
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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.
To make things easier on the eyes, go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 21, 2025
“Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”
From Salon • Aug. 19, 2025
Fleming had sung Puts’ “Letters from Georgia” based on correspondence between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz, which premiered in 2016 and was expanded three years later into “The Brightness of Light.”
From Seattle Times • Nov. 21, 2022
Brightness topped out at 257 nits, which is not impressively bright, but OLEDs tend to run on the dimmer side.
From The Verge • Aug. 31, 2022
That’s the day of the Festival of Pure Brightness.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
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.
