Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The intrinsic property in radiation that produces photochemical activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, the chemical action of sunlight on plants.
  • noun The radiation of heat or light, or that branch of natural philosophy which treats of the radiation of heat and light.
  • noun That property of light which, as may be seen in photography, produces chemical combinations and decompositions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The property of radiant energy (found chiefly in solar or electric light) by which chemical changes are produced, as in photography.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry, physics That property of electromagnetic radiation that leads to the production of photochemical effects

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of radiation that enables it to produce photochemical effects

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

actin- + -ism

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Examples

  • Niépce, a Frenchman, discovered "actinism," that power in the sun's rays which produces a chemical effect; that granite rocks, and stone structures, and statues of metal, "are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of sunshine, and, but for provisions of Nature no less wonderful, would soon perish under the delicate touch of the most subtile of the agencies of the universe."

    Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American Various

  • Frenchman, discovered "actinism," that power in the sun's rays which produces a chemical effect; that granite rocks, and stone structures, and statues of metal "are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of sunshine, and, but for provisions of

    Walking 1969

  • Frenchman, discovered "actinism," that power in the sun's rays which produces a chemical effect; that granite rocks, and stone structures, and statues of metal "are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of sunshine, and, but for provisions of

    Walking 1862

  • Light or luminous power to one portion; heat or calorific power to another; and chemical power or actinism to a third.

    The Art of Living in Australia 2004

  • Light or luminous power to one portion; heat or calorific power to another; and chemical power or actinism to a third.

    The Art of Living in Australia ; together with three hundred Australian cookery recipes and accessory kitchen information by Mrs. H. Wicken Philip E. Muskett

  • The mechanism must be sensitive, as such properties of matter as heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and actinism, are to be handled, caused to vanish and reappear, analyzed and measured.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 288, July 9, 1881 Various

  • Meanwhile, two or three interesting investigations naturally suggest themselves; to determine, for instance, the relative actinism of blue sky, haze, and clouds; also, the relative exposures proper to give at different hours of the day, at different seasons of the year, and in different countries.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 Various

  • Niépce, a Frenchman, discovered “actinism, ” that power in the sun’s rays which produces a chemical effect; that granite rocks, and stone structures, and statues of metal, “are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of sunshine, and, but for provisions of Nature no less wonderful, would soon perish under the delicate touch of the most subtile of the agencies of the universe.

    Walking [1862] 1909

  • Considering the wondrous richness and variety of the terrestrial life wrought out by the few sunbeams which we catch in our career through space, we may well pause overwhelmed and stupefied at the thought of the incalculable possibilities of existence which are thrown away with the potent actinism that darts unceasingly into the unfathomed abysms of immensity.

    The Unseen World, and Other Essays 1876

  • Considering the wondrous richness and variety of the terrestrial life wrought out by the few sunbeams which we catch in our career through space, we may well pause overwhelmed and stupefied at the thought of the incalculable possibilities of existence which are thrown away with the potent actinism that darts unceasingly into the unfathomed abysms of immensity.

    The Unseen World and Other Essays John Fiske 1871

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