illumination
Americannoun
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an act or instance of illuminating.
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the fact or condition of being illuminated.
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a decoration of lights, usually colored lights.
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Sometimes illuminations. an entertainment, display, or celebration using lights as a major feature or decoration.
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intellectual or spiritual enlightenment.
- Synonyms:
- wisdom, insight, revelation, knowledge
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Also called illuminance. Also called 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.
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a supply of light.
a source of illumination.
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decoration of a manuscript or book with a painted design in color, gold, etc.
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a design used in such decoration.
noun
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the act of illuminating or the state of being illuminated
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a source of light
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(often plural) a light or lights, esp coloured lights, used as decoration in streets, parks, etc
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spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; insight or understanding
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the act of making understood; clarification
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decoration in colours, gold, or silver used on some manuscripts or printed works
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physics another name (not in technical usage) for illuminance
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of illumination
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Medieval Latin illūminātiōn-, stem of illūminātiō “spiritual enlightenment,” from Latin: “illustriousness, glory”; see illuminate ( def. ), -ion ( def. )
Explanation
Illumination is light. Kids up past their bedtimes have been known to read entire books under their covers using only the illumination from a flashlight. Use the noun illumination to talk about light, like the illumination of the moon on the surface of a lake. Illumination can also refer to an understanding or a spiritual awareness, like when a mystery of your faith suddenly makes sense to you. The Latin root is illuminationem, "throw into light" — you can picture the light bulb over a person's head in a cartoon to remember the various meaning of illumination.
Vocabulary lists containing illumination
Let There Be Light: Lum and Luc
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Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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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:
The Buck Moon is set to reach its peak illumination at 15:36 BST, however this will occur just below the horizon.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Despite the wet forecast, their expectations for illumination were high.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
The camera seemed delighted by the illumination of all those cellphones, but mostly ignored the overhead Jumbotron, which, when I go to big shows, tends to be the only thing I wind up watching.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
Even Apollo astronauts didn't see the Orientale basin completely because of their orbit and illumination conditions.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
It was a square mile of illumination, big enough to be seen out in space.
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
Signer John Adams hoped that future generations would celebrate America’s birthday with “bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Marine life that most people never see floated into view, including delicate comb jellies with pulsing fairy-light illuminations along their sides.
From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026
Or, to paraphrase a Virginia Woolf line from “To the Lighthouse” that Rhys invoked earlier: What gets us through are “little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
The illuminations set off from the London Eye, and barges moored in a central area of the river featured more than 12,000 fireworks.
From DOGO News ● Jan. 2, 2024
Jeanne examines a Latin volume with beautiful illuminations in blue, red, and gold leaf.
From "The Inquisitor's Tale" by Adam Gidwitz
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.
