phosphorescence
Americannoun
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the property of being luminous at temperatures below incandescence, as from slow oxidation in the case of phosphorus or after exposure to light or other radiation.
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a luminous appearance resulting from this.
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any luminous radiation emitted from a substance after the removal of the exciting agent.
noun
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physics
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a fluorescence that persists after the bombarding radiation producing it has stopped
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a fluorescence for which the average lifetime of the excited atoms is greater than 10 –8 seconds
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the light emitted in phosphorescence
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the emission of light during a chemical reaction, such as bioluminescence, in which insufficient heat is evolved to cause fluorescence Compare fluorescence
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of phosphorescence
First recorded in 1790–1800; phosphoresc(ent) + -ence
Explanation
Phosphorescence is when something glows with light without becoming hot to the touch, like the glow-in-the-dark stars on your bedroom ceiling. Special paint that you can see in the dark has the quality of phosphorescence, and in nature there are certain types of plankton that make moonlit water glow with phosphorescence. It's a scientific term that describes what happens when energy is emitted slowly from an object, appearing as light. It comes from the word phosphorus, a chemical element whose Latin meaning is "light-bringing."
Vocabulary lists containing phosphorescence
Novel Study: Lord of the Flies, Chapters 5–12
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Words with 15 or More Letters, List 3
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Impossible Creatures
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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.
Abiotic minerals also emit their own light, called phosphorescence.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2022
I’m staring down, where dolphins are magically lit by phosphorescence.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 4, 2018
He quotes the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, who wrote that “Havana has the yellow of Cadiz, the pink of Seville turning carmine and the green of Granada, with the slight phosphorescence of fish.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2017
In your death you would not witness a stomach glowing with phosphorescence; your skin would not turn white; you would not find a coconut; you would not be encased and warm, womb-like.
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2012
From here she had a view of the driveway and the lake across which lay a column of shimmering phosphorescence, white hot from the fierce late afternoon heat.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
