incandescent lamp

noun

a lamp that emits light due to the glowing of a heated material, especially the common device in which a tungsten filament enclosed within an evacuated glass bulb is rendered luminous by the passage of an electric current through it.

Compare fluorescent lamp.

Origin of incandescent lamp

First recorded in 1880–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for incandescent lamp

incandescent lamp

noun

a source of light that contains a heated solid, such as an electrically heated filament

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

incandescent lamp in Science

incandescent lamp

[ĭn′kən-dĕs′ənt]

A lamp that produces light by heating up a filament of wire inside a bulb with an electric current, causing incandescence. The glass bulb containing the filament is filled with a nonreactive gas, such as argon, to prevent the wire from burning. Compare fluorescent lamp.