luminance
noun
Simple meaning
Emitting or reflecting light.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
loomuhnuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlumənəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light
The amount of light that passes through, is emitted, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle.
optics
The luminous flux emitted in a given direction divided by the product of the projected area of the source element perpendicular to the direction and the solid angle containing that direction (i.e. luminous intensity divided by unit area), measured in stilbs or apostilbs.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: The quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light
Used this way, luminance is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- luminosity , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A long-acting barbiturate used as a sedative.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: being luminous
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “luminance” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.