Standard Lemma guide

fluorescence

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /flʊˈɹɛsəns/
  • General-American: /flɔ-/
  • General-American: /floʊ-/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • homophone: florescence
  • homophone: in some pronunciations
  • CMU ARPABET: F L UH2 R EH1 S AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The light so emitted.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

light emitted during absorption of radiation of some other (invisible) wavelength

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: light, visible light, visible radiation

Narrower terms: autofluorescence, phosphorescence

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bhel-der. Proto-Indo-European *bhlewH-der. Proto-Indo-European *bhluH-yé-ti? Latin fluō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin fluorbor. English fluor Proto-Indo-European *-tósder. Ancient Greek -της (-tēs)der. Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs)der. Latin -ītēsbor. French -iteder. English -ite English fluorite Middle Low German sparder. Old English spærstān Middle English sparston English sparstonebf. English spar blend English fluorspar Proto-Indo-European *-éh1ti Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh1sḱeti Proto-Italic *-ēskō Latin -ēscō Latin -escensder. English -escence English fluorescence Coined by British physicist George Stokes in 1852 from fluorspar + -escence.

Across languages

Translations

20 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: fluoresensie — emission of light
  • Basque: fluoreszentzia — emission of light
  • Catalan: fluorescència — emission of light
  • Chinese Cantonese: 熒光 /荧光 (jing4 gwong1) — emission of light
  • Chinese Mandarin: 熒光 /荧光 (yíngguāng) — emission of light
  • Esperanto: fluoresko — emission of light
  • Finnish: fluoresenssi — emission of light
  • French: fluorescence — emission of light
  • German: Fluoreszenz — emission of light
  • Greek: φθορισμός (fthorismós) — emission of light
  • Hindi: प्रतिदीप्ति (pratidīpti) — emission of light
  • Indonesian: fluoresen — emission of light
  • Japanese: 蛍光 (keikō) — emission of light
  • Kazakh: әлсіз сәулелену (älsız säulelenu) — emission of light
  • Korean: 형광 (hyeonggwang) — emission of light
  • Malay: pendarfluor — emission of light
  • Occitan: fluorescéncia — emission of light
  • Portuguese: fluorescência — emission of light
  • Spanish: fluorescencia — emission of light
  • Vietnamese: huỳnh quang — emission of light
Real reading context

fluorescence in complete knowledge articles