radiance
Americannoun
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radiances
plural
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radiant brightness or light.
the radiance of the tropical sun.
- Synonyms:
- brilliance, splendor, resplendence
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warm, cheerful brightness.
the radiance of her expression.
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Rare. radiation.
noun
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the quality or state of being radiant
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Le. a measure of the amount of electromagnetic radiation leaving or arriving at a point on a surface. It is the radiant intensity in a given direction of a small element of surface area divided by the orthogonal projection of this area onto a plane at right angles to the direction
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of radiance
Compare meaning
How does radiance compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Radiance is a type of glowing: either from a light source like the sun or a healthy, beaming person. The sun radiates lights, and bright objects that give off light rays have a quality called radiance. The sun's radiance can be felt the strongest in the afternoon. We use lights for their radiance: they brighten rooms and streets. Also, if someone is happy and healthy, we can talk about their radiance. A sign of radiance in a person is a wide smile, and pregnant women are often said to have a glow or radiance because they’re full of life.
Vocabulary lists containing radiance
Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 1
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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A Single Shard
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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:
However violent Gandhi’s quest for non-violence becomes, the production evolves into impossible radiance, turning the opera into something resembling a Passion Play.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
The fashion label Coperni has created leggings and other garments made from a fabric embedded with bacteria, which it says help rejuvenate the skin and boost radiance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
‘This Christmas, let’s celebrate the love we hold within ourselves and share it with the world around us. After all, wherever we are, we can create a home filled with grace, radiance, and endless possibilities.’
From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2025
More recent interpreters underline the song’s vast reach, from Harolyn Blackwell’s operatic radiance and Norah Jones’s hushed Tanglewood version to Kenny Barron’s pensive piano meditation and Willie Nelson’s weathered country croon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
“Note the general radiance of this animal! Then remember the day when the word ‘radiant’ appeared clearly on the web.
From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
And she is there, that is a pyramid Whereon the stars, the statues of the dead, Are imaged over the eternal hall, A group of radiances majestical!
From The Death-Wake or Lunacy; a Necromaunt in Three Chimeras by Andrew Lang
The face Julian turned to his friend in the starlight was lit with radiances Napier had never thought to see there.
From The Messenger by Elizabeth Robins
She was, in short, a thoroughly handsome woman, and the sunlight struck curious radiances from the little pearls she wore in the shell-like lobes of her ears.
From A Butterfly on the Wheel by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull
Who that has suffered has not felt wave after wave break dully against one rock, till brain and heart, with all their radiances, seemed lost in a single shadow?
From The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) by Sir Frederic G. (Frederic George) Kenyon
The cherry trees were swollen almost to blossom, and the apple trees had pale radiances in the glance of the sun.
From 'Doc.' Gordon by Frank T. (Frank Thayer) Merrill
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.
