DIMENSIONS: DENOTATION / Quality
R E F E R E N C E S
1 bright adj [ME, fr. OE beorht, akin to OHG beraht bright, Skt bhrájate it shines] [bef. 12c] 1a: radiating or reflecting light: Shining, Sparkling [__ lights] __ eyes] b: Sunny [a __ day], also: radiant with happiness [__ smiling faces] [__ moments] 2: Illustrious. Glorious [__est star of the opera] 3: Beautiful 4: of high saturation or brilliance [__ colors] 5a: Lively, Cheerful [be __ and jovial among your guests -Shak.] 5a: Intelligent, Clever [a __ idea] [__ children] 6: Auspicious, Promising [__ prospects for the future]
Syn Bright, Brilliant, Radiant, Luminous, Lustrous mean shining or glowing with light. Bright implies emitting or reflecting a high degree of light. Brilliant implies intense often sparkling brightness, Radiant stresses the emission or seeming emission of rays of light. Luminous implies emission of steady, suffused, glowing light by reflectin or in surrounding darkness. Lustrous stresses an even, rich light from a surface that reflects brightly without sparkling or glittering.
2 bright n [1969]: a bright color -usu. used in pl. [rich earth tones and crisp __s -Patricia Peterson]
Brightness n [Bef. 12c] 1: the quality or state of being bright; also: an instance of such a quality or state b: Luminance 2: the attribute of light-source colors by which emitted light is ordered continuously from light to dark in correlation with its intensity -compare Hue 2c, 1Lightness 2, Sauturation4.
[Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. Springfield, MA, USA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1995.]
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