fluorescent
Americanadjective
-
possessing the property of fluorescence; exhibiting fluorescence.
-
strikingly bright, vivid, or glowing.
plastic toys in fluorescent colors.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived 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.
Fluorescent light touches almost every corner, but the few shadowy passages seem even more sinister when surrounded by endless lumination.
From Salon • May 30, 2026
Fluorescent markers bound to one of the matching DNA strands make the duplex visible, and fluorescence intensity increases with increasing duplex stability.
From Science Daily • Oct. 17, 2023
Fluorescent lights are on 24 hours a day and so she's been unable to sleep properly, her granddaughter says.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2022
Fluorescent compounds can also help shield living things from the harmful effects of UV rays — the same that cause skin damage to people — by absorbing them.
From New York Times • Sep. 2, 2021
Fluorescent lights hung over counters that ran the length of the room.
From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed
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.
