luminous

English

Alternative forms

• luminious (uncommon)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French lumineus, from Latin lūminōsus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːmɪnəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

luminous (comparative more luminous, superlative most luminous)

1. Emitting light; glowing brightly; shining.

   Synonyms: beamful, shining, radiant; see also Thesaurus:shining

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 21:

     The moon, which had been slowly ascending, now shone through an open space between the trees; and the rippling waters of the brook gave back her light in luminous vibrations.

   • 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter [HTTP://GUTENBERG.NET.AU/EBOOKS06/0608511H.HTML CHAPTER 11].”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC:

     The bonfire in his heart made luminous the rose-tan in his cheek.

   • 2025 November 4, Thomas Kelly, “Debunking “When Prophecy Fails””, in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, volume 62, number 1, →DOI, →ISSN, page 3:

     When approaching the Laughead household, she claimed to have previously met Charles Laughead and to recently have experienced a mystical dream in which a mysterious, luminous man rescued her from a flood (Williams 1954).

2. Brightly illuminated.

   Synonyms: lighted, lit up; see also Thesaurus:illuminated

   (Can we add an example for this sense? )

3. Clear; enlightening; easy to understand.

   a luminous explanation

Derived terms

• fast-evolving luminous transient
• hyperluminous
• luminosity
• luminous energy
• luminous flux
• luminous intensity
• luminously
• luminousness
• non-luminous
• nonluminous
• overluminous
• radio-luminous
• self-luminous
• subluminous
• superluminous
• transient luminous event
• ultraluminous
• underluminous
• unluminous

Related terms

• illuminate
• lumic
• luminal

Translations

emitting light; glowing brightly

• Bashkir: яҡты (yaqtı)
• Bau Bidayuh: bidingiem
• Bulgarian: светещ (svetešt)
• Catalan: lluminós (ca)
• Dutch: lichtgevend (nl)
• Esperanto: luma (eo)
• Finnish: valaiseva (fi), kirkas (fi), valovoimainen
• French: lumineux (fr)
• Galician: luminoso (gl) m
• Georgian: მნათობი (mnatobi), მნათი (mnati), მანათებელი (manatebeli), ნათელი (nateli)
• German: leuchtend (de)
• Greek: φωτεινός (el) (foteinós)

  Ancient: φωτεινός (phōteinós)

• Hebrew: בהיר (he) m (bahir), בּוֹהֵק m (boheq)
• Hindi: चमकीला (hi) (camkīlā), उज्ज्वल (hi) (ujjval)
• Ido: lumoza (io)
• Indonesian: berkilau (id)
• Irish: lonrach
• Italian: luminoso (it)
• Latin: lūminōsus
• Malay: berkilau
• Ottoman Turkish: نورانی (nurani), ایشق (ışık)
• Portuguese: luminoso (pt)
• Romanian: luminos (ro)
• Russian: светя́щийся (ru) (svetjáščijsja), флюоресце́нтный (ru) (fljuorescéntnyj)
• Sanskrit: उज्ज्वल (sa) (ujjvala)
• Spanish: luminoso (es)
• Swedish: ljusavgivande
• Tamil: ^{(please verify)} ஒளிரும் (ta) (oḷirum)
• Tocharian B: perne
• Ukrainian: блискучий (uk) (blyskučyj)
• Welsh: goleuol
• West Frisian: ljochtjaand

brightly illuminated

• Bulgarian: светъл (bg) (svetǎl), осветен (bg) (osveten)
• Finnish: kirkkaasti valaistu
• Hindi: उज्ज्वल (hi) (ujjval), चमकीला (hi) (camkīlā)
• Indonesian: berseri-seri (id), berserian
• Ottoman Turkish: ایشق (ışık)
• Russian: освещённый (ru) (osveščónnyj), я́ркий (ru) (járkij)
• Welsh: disglair (cy), llewychol

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} lumineux (fr)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} luminoso (it)