1.
[syn: incandescent, candent]
2. characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance;
- Example: "an incandescent performance"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Incandescent \In`can*des"cent\, a. [L. incandecens, -entis, p.
pr. of incandescere to become warm or hot; pref. in- in +
candescere to become of a glittering whiteness, to become red
hot, incho. fr. candere to be of a glittering whiteness: cf.
F. incandescent. See Candle.]
White, glowing, or luminous, with intense heat; as,
incandescent carbon or platinum; hence, clear; shining;
brilliant.
[1913 Webster]
Holy Scripture become resplendent; or, as one might
say, incandescent throughout. --I. Taylor.
[1913 Webster]
Incandescent lamp, Incandescent light, Incandescent
light bulb (Elec.), a kind of lamp in which the light is
produced by a thin filament of conducting material, now
usually tungsten, but originally carbon, contained in a
vacuum or an atmosphere of inert gas within a glass bulb,
and heated to incandescence by an electric current. It was
inventerd by Thomas Edison, and was once called the
Edison lamp; -- called also incandescence lamp, and
glowlamp. This is one of the two most common sources of
electric light, the other being the fluorescent light,
fluorescent lamp or fluorescent bulb.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
incandescent
adj 1: emitting light as a result of being heated; "an
incandescent bulb" [syn: incandescent, candent]
2: characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance;
"an incandescent performance"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
82 Moby Thesaurus words for "incandescent":
ablaze, afire, aflame, aflicker, aglow, alight, ardent, beaming,
beamy, blazing, blushing, bright, bright and sunny, brilliant,
burning, candent, candescent, comburent, conflagrant, effulgent,
fiery, flagrant, flaming, flaring, flickering, flushing, fulgent,
fuming, gleaming, gleamy, glinting, glowing, guttering, ignescent,
ignited, illuminant, in a blaze, in a glow, in flames, inflamed,
irradiative, kindled, lambent, lamping, light as day, live, living,
lucent, luciferous, lucific, luciform, luminant, luminative,
luminiferous, luminificent, luminous, lustrous, on fire, orient,
radiant, red-hot, reeking, refulgent, rutilant, rutilous,
scintillant, scintillating, shining, shiny, smoking, smoldering,
sparking, starbright, starlike, starry, streaming, suffused, sunny,
sunshiny, unextinguished, unquenched, white-hot