Standard Lemma guide

noctilucent

adj · 2 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

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Shining or glowing at night, especially of very high-altitude clouds that reflect sunlight long after sunset; nightshining.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: climatology, meteorology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

shining or glowing by night

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the noctilucent eyes of a cat

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From nocti- + lucent.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • French: noctiluque — (meteorology) glowing at night
  • Italian: nottilucente — (meteorology) glowing at night
  • Japanese: 夜光 (yakō) — (meteorology) glowing at night
  • Spanish: noctilucente — (meteorology) glowing at night
  • Welsh: nosloyw — (meteorology) glowing at night