Definition of phosphorescence in English:



  • 1Light emitted by a substance without combustion or perceptible heat.

    ‘the stones overhead gleamed with phosphorescence’
    • ‘This was similar to the flame of a big blue slow moving torch, that had a steady slight wind blowing on it, that made the leading edge wobble and warp in a slow fluttering motion, with the changing gun-blue phosphorescence.’
    • ‘Another boat chugged past and at that moment our world exploded in hissing silvery blue, the sea whisking and shining in a turmoil of a bustle of fish and phosphorescence, like coins gleaming in a dark, still pool.’
    • ‘I stared silently out the window as an eerie aura of phosphorescence crowned the long rows of waves crashing onto the beach under the moonlight.’
    • ‘We journeyed out to the Lions Gate Bridge; on the way back, the ocean's phosphorescence electrified our strokes.’
    • ‘Now only the stars have been netted in the casuarinas and the surf snarls with eerie phosphorescence as if glowing with spectral fires.’
    • ‘A large cavern, lit only by the faintest glimmer of phosphorescence, was exposed, a vast lake in the centre.’
    • ‘At times the sea was glittering with phosphorescence, and when dolphins appeared around Pindar at that time, they left silver streaks in the water like Walt Disney characters.’
    • ‘Ancient runic lettering on the wall shone clearly yet legibly, some eerie phosphorescence at work; and the dome… pure, sparkling, it needed no lamp to herald its majesty.’
    • ‘Sunset faded and the mainland lights fell away, surges of phosphorescence began to show.’
    • ‘The I.V. stand is dragged along like a broken mast, its medicine bags glowing like ocean phosphorescence; rising from the water, as in a horror movie, a tentacle wields a syringe and a human hand proffers a dripping bottle of pills.’
    • ‘He would watch for the telltale disturbance of phosphorescence in the water which meant the fish were rising on the ebb tide.’
    • ‘Since that time, phosphorescence has been used to describe substances that shine in the dark without burning.’
    • ‘It was peaceful: the waves slapping against the hull, the ocean aglow with cold, blue phosphorescence - almost a net of glittering cyan and light.’
    • ‘The water about them glowed with a strange green phosphorescence.’
    • ‘A beautiful hole, but it was still a hole when you stripped away all the velvet and phosphorescence.’
    • ‘Europa achieves ecstatic permanence in phosphorescence, which originates only due to light from another source, just as myth propagates itself: by tapping into innate human eros.’
    • ‘It was just like Goa - picturesque, abounded in clean beaches, where, because of phosphorescence, waves glow on a full moon night, and provided a sense of tranquillity.’
    • ‘A sparkling phosphorescence blossomed out through the water from where they hit the water, and the pool was lit with a strange iridescence.’
    • ‘The lighting uses silhouettes and phosphorescence that give figures and flying coats a garish glow, and none more memorably than the small witch-like figure suspended on high in the second half before she falls and flashes to the ground.’
    • ‘The place they flew through was eerie, lit only by lightning and the faint phosphorescence of the clouds themselves which both above and below formed a curving tunnel.’
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    1. 1.1Physics The emission of radiation in a similar manner to fluorescence but on a longer timescale, so that emission continues after excitation ceases.
      • ‘The high degree of iodine substitution in this aromatic molecule facilitates intersystem crossing, and rose bengal exhibits significant phosphorescence.’
      • ‘Thus, thought Becquerel, he had extended his discovery of long-lived phosphorescence to metals.’
      • ‘Thermoluminescence is phosphorescence of a material due to heating.’
      • ‘In the case of molecules, the emission is called fluorescence if the transition occurs between states of the same spin, and phosphorescence if the transition takes place between states of different spin.’
      • ‘One piece of ore that missed the smelter contained some secondary willemite with a very long phosphorescence.’