fluorescent
Americanadjective
-
possessing the property of fluorescence; exhibiting fluorescence.
-
strikingly bright, vivid, or glowing.
plastic toys in fluorescent colors.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fluorescent
Explanation
A fluorescent bulb gets its light from mercury vapor inside a glass tube. The incandescent bulb — the kind associated with Thomas Edison — has a filament that glows when it's heated. You can also use fluorescent to describe something that's so vivid and bright it seems to give off light. Fluorescent is related to the word fluorspar, or fluorite, which is a mineral that glows. Notice the -u- in these words. Fluorescent comes from the Latin fluere "to flow" — fluorspar can be added to welding compounds, for instance, to make them flow more easily. Florescent, without a -u-, means "flowering," from Latin flor-, which is a completely different root.
Vocabulary lists containing fluorescent
Frindle
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The Lemonade War
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The Marvels
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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.
He recently made a trip to Ace Hardware to mark it with its new designation: a big, fluorescent No. 80.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
The sites are dubbed "pink slime" after the fluorescent pink meat paste used as an additive by food manufacturers.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
The fluorescent light stung my eyes after hours in the darkness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
It was odd enough that most people in the crowd were wearing fluorescent orange, but stranger still was this rarity: the sight of a group of diverse men full of hope.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
It’s filled with different-colored inks, reds and blues and blacks, and a couple of sparkly fluorescent colors from a gel pen kit I got back in sixth grade.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
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.
