brightness
Americannoun
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brightnesses
plural
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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.
See Examples For:
Nearly all known exoplanets have been discovered indirectly, including through methods that detect the slight drop in a star's brightness when a planet passes in front of it.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026
The possibility that Betelgeuse has a companion was first raised roughly a century ago as a potential explanation for some of its changes in brightness.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
During the chorus, harmonica borrowed from Stevie Wonder’s “That Girl” screeches into view, but the brightness only serves to accent the desolation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
People viewing a partial eclipse can see the brightness of the Sun decrease and feel the temperature drop.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Ivan stood next to her, likewise blinking away the brightness, and he mumbled, “What happened?”
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
So, when astrophysicists compare the apparent brightnesses of two type Ia supernovae as seen from Earth, they can determine their relative distances from us.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 8, 2024
This, they said, was consistent with quasars of different "brightnesses," meaning with varying strength to their radio emissions.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2023
Besides dramatically boosting the total number of known FRB events, the observations also revealed a very wide range of brightnesses among the recorded events, offering new clues about the astrophysical nature of their mysterious source.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 13, 2021
I had become fond of these orange poppies and their disintegration forces me to face inevitable endings and renunciations of all seasons, of all the sunlit fields I ever saw, of all brightnesses, persons, myself.
From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2017
I look at the moons one more time, the smaller one chasing the larger one, two brightnesses up there, still light enough to cast shadows, ignorant of the troubles of men.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
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.
