illumination
[ih-loo-muh-ney-shuh n]
- an act or instance of illuminating.
- the fact or condition of being illuminated.
- a decoration of lights, usually colored lights.
- Sometimes illuminations. an entertainment, display, or celebration using lights as a major feature or decoration.
- intellectual or spiritual enlightenment.
- Also called illuminance, intensity of illumination. Optics. the intensity of light falling at a given place on a lighted surface; the luminous flux incident per unit area, expressed in lumens per unit of area.
- a supply of light: a source of illumination.
- decoration of a manuscript or book with a painted design in color, gold, etc.
- a design used in such decoration.
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Origin of illumination
1300–50; Middle English < Medieval Latin illūminātiōn- (stem of illūminātiō) spiritual enlightenment (Latin: illustriousness, glory) See illuminate, -ion
Synonyms
See more synonyms for illumination on Thesaurus.com5. knowledge, revelation, insight, wisdom.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for illumination
Contemporary Examples
The book is fascinating partly for its illumination of the origins of current conventions.
Rather than selective filtering for purposes of justification, information is instead used as the fuel for illumination.
Consider the opening of the first illumination, “After the Flood:”
Here are five of my favorite moments of illumination from the book.
Historical Examples
The Leopard Woman stood just within the circle of illumination.
The Leopard WomanStewart Edward White
By experiment he found that at a distance of a foot or so the illumination registered.
The Leopard WomanStewart Edward White
Yet perhaps it was the illumination which gave so gloomy a cast to Amalia's features.
Casanova's HomecomingArthur Schnitzler
The illumination had seemed brilliant, now suddenly it was pale and dim.
Two Thousand Miles BelowCharles Willard Diffin
Then, with a brazil nut candle for illumination, he began to write.
illumination
- the act of illuminating or the state of being illuminated
- a source of light
- (often plural) mainly British a light or lights, esp coloured lights, used as decoration in streets, parks, etc
- spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; insight or understanding
- the act of making understood; clarification
- decoration in colours, gold, or silver used on some manuscripts or printed works
- physics another name (not in technical usage) for illuminance
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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
Word Origin and History for illumination
n.
late 14c., "spiritual enlightenment," from Latin illuminationem (nominative illuminatio), from past participle stem of illuminare "to throw into light, make bright, light up;" figuratively "to set off, illustrate," from assimilated form of in- "in, into" (see in- (2)) + lumen (genitive luminis) "light," related to lucere "to shine" (see light (n.)). Meaning "action of lighting" is from 1560s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper