radiant
/ˈreɪdɪənt
/adjective
1Sending out light; shining or glowing brightly: a bird with radiant green and red plumage...
- The bright light was radiant with the morning rays of red, orange, pink, and gold, reflecting brilliantly on the glasslike water.
- Karya finally awoke to a weak light, nothing like the radiant shine in her now lost home.
- The contrast is brought across through imaginative use of light and radiant colours.
Synonyms
shining, bright, illuminated, lit, lighted, brilliant, gleaming, glowing, ablaze, luminous, luminescent, lustrous, incandescent, glittering, sparkling, coruscating, dazzling, flashing, shimmering
informal glowy
literary irradiant, lucent, lambent, splendent
rare effulgent, refulgent
1.1(Of a person or their expression) clearly emanating great joy, love, or health: she gave him a radiant smile...
- She was radiant and she smiled the most when she was with him.
- The sight of my mother, my beautiful, radiant mother, was more than I could handle while pregnant and without my eldest daughter.
- I'm fond of Mrs. Johnson, who has a gentle southern accent and a radiant expression.
Synonyms
joyful, elated, thrilled, overjoyed, jubilant, in raptures, enraptured, rapturous, ecstatic, beside oneself with joy, euphoric, deliriously happy, blissfully happy, in seventh heaven, on cloud nine/seven, delighted, joyous, pleased, happy, beaming, glowing, transported, in transports of joy/pleasure/delight
informal on top of the world, over the moon, blissed out
Australian informal wrapped
1.2(Of an emotion or quality) emanating powerfully from someone or something; very conspicuous: he praised her radiant self-confidence...
- Its root cause - a sense of identity narrowly defined by the physical body and self-limiting thoughts and emotions - is transformed into radiant equanimity.
- Emanating radiant compassion toward all of her devotees, Ammachi is understood to be a manifestation of the Great Goddess on earth - a living Avatar.
- Rebecca still had that radiant confidence that we'd uncovered within her a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't help but feel proud knowing that we'd helped her to achieve it.
Synonyms
splendid, magnificent, brilliant, dazzling, scintillating, coruscating, vivid, intense, beautiful, gorgeous, transcendent, resplendent, impressive, spectacular, striking, stunning, glorious, superb, majestic, great, breathtaking, ravishing, sumptuous, fine
informal splendiferous
rare splendacious, magnolious
2 [attributive] (Of electromagnetic energy, especially heat) transmitted by radiation, rather than conduction or convection: plants convert the radiant energy of the sun into chemical energy...
- Thermal energy from infrared, radiant heat sources has been used to treat chronic human wounds with decreasing frequency during the past 25 years.
- In the tandoor, the breads (necessarily flat in shape) are slapped onto the vertical wall, where they bake quite quickly by a combination of radiant heat and convection.
- There are many forms of energy, each of which can be classified into three categories: radiant energy, kinetic energy, and potential energy.
2.1(Of an appliance) designed to emit radiant energy, especially for cooking or heating: a radiant heater...
- This is the Hydronic radiant heating system that saves huge energy as well as money on heating larger areas of your home/office environment.
- A typical radiant heating and cooling system starts with a high-performance glazing system, integrated with light shelves and exterior shades as needed.
- Consequently, incubator care is associated with less insensible water loss, and lower fluid requirements, than nursing infants in open cots under radiant heaters.
noun
1A point or object from which light or heat radiates, especially a heating element in an electric or gas heater: I sat down by my hissing gas fire—one of the radiants was missing
1.1 Astronomy A radiant point: don’t assume that you should stare toward the radiant to see the most meteors...
- The Perseid radiant will just be rising above the north-northeastern horizon around 9 PM.
Derivatives
radiancy
- If only all nature, all humanity were bathed in a rosy glowing radiancy and life for the future seemed naught but buoyancy and light.
- It was almost pure and absolute white, with delicate and slender curls and a shining radiancy that made my eyes widen.
radiantly
/ adverb ...- He beams radiantly, reaches out to shake my hand, and says: ‘Welcome to Big Rock.’
- Looking radiantly healthy - in contrast to her wan mien of recent months - she lucidly defended herself the interviewers tried to extract an apology from her.
- Outwardly, Gina didn't seem troubled - she babysat for neighbors, wrote cute poems, and smiled radiantly for pictures.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Latin radiant- 'emitting rays', from the verb radiare (see radiate).