flashbulb

or flash bulb

[ flash-buhlb ]

/ ˈflæʃˌbʌlb /

Save This Word!

noun Photography.

a glass bulb, filled with oxygen and aluminum or zirconium wire or foil, which, when ignited electrically, burns with a brilliant flash to provide momentary illumination of a subject.

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "IS" VS. "ARE"

"Is" it time for a new quiz? "Are" you ready? Then prove your excellent skills on using "is" vs. "are."

Question 1 of 7

IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Also called flash.

Origin of flashbulb

First recorded in 1930–35; flash + bulb

Words nearby flashbulb

flaring, flash, flashback, flash blindness, flashboard, flashbulb, flashbulb memory, flash burn, flashcard, flashcube, flash drive

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use flashbulb in a sentence

Everybody whooped and hollered and flashbulbs went off like gunshots and microphones were shoved in faces and TV cameras were everywhere and parents ran toward their children.
The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping|Kaleb Horton|July 23, 2021|Vox
The tangle of enormous fake diamonds resting on top of her cleavage sparkles at every flashbulb.
And The Escort of The Year Is… Backstage at The Sex Oscars|Scott Bixby|March 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It's as though when we first learn of it a flashbulb has imprinted in our recall the details of the event.
The Lost JFK Tapes and What We Now Know|Gerald Posner|November 23, 2009|DAILY BEAST
You aim, pull the trigger, and the shutter opens as the flashbulb goes off.
Creatures of the Abyss|Murray Leinster

It was what he'd seen when the flashbulb of his gun-camera went off.
Creatures of the Abyss|Murray Leinster
When you photographed the scene, did you use flashbulb equipment or not?
Warren Commission (7 of 26): Hearings Vol. VII (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Just like a camera flashbulb going off, but bigger, brighter.
The Mississippi Saucer|Frank Belknap Long

British Dictionary definitions for flashbulb

flashbulb

/ (ˈflæʃˌbʌlb) /

noun

photog a small expendable glass light bulb formerly used to produce a bright flash of lightAlso called: photoflash Compare electronic flash

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