radiance

American  

[rey-dee-uhns] / ˈreɪ di əns /

noun

• radiances
  plural

1. radiant brightness or light.

   the radiance of the tropical sun.

   Synonyms:

   brilliance, splendor, resplendence

2. warm, cheerful brightness.

   the radiance of her expression.

3. Rare. radiation.

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radiance British  

/ ˈreɪdɪəns /

noun

1. the quality or state of being radiant

2.  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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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonradiance
  noun
• subradiance
  noun
• superradiance
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• radiances
  plural

Etymology

Origin of radiance

First recorded in 1595–1605; radi(ant) + -ance

Compare meaning

How does radiance compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• irradiance vs. radiance

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

radiance radiances

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

All this gives the affair a narcoleptic quality, where flashes of radiance are quickly overwhelmed by everything else as we’re put back into our stupor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026

As Elmire, Ms. Gray has a gentle radiance and tolerant air of affection for her husband’s folly.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 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

It was almost full dark, but the moon-god Thoth’s heavenly barque, which revealed its high-prowed boat shape clearly these nights of its waning, was beginning to shed a gentle radiance over the littered pavement.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

Even the shade is but a flight Toward flickering radiances, that slip From space to space; and now the light Sleeps, with calmed rays, upon the lip Of lilac-blossoms golden-white.

From Poems of Emile Verhaeren by Emile Verhaeren

Under the combined blaze of their radiances, the wilderness that stretched before me, became steadily more visible.

From The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson

Reeves smiled at the gloomy fancy, and Helen smiled back at him with one of her sudden radiances.

From Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1896 to 1901 by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

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

The well polished fire-irons, and other metal things, seemed to gather up the diffuse daylight and fling it back in concentrated radiances that illuminated the shady cottage with cheerful beauty.

From Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine by Edwin Waugh

Related Words

• warmth