Definitions

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

  • adjective Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining.
  • adjective Comparatively high on the scale of brightness.
  • adjective Full of light or illumination.
  • adjective Characterizing a dyestuff that produces a highly saturated color; brilliant.
  • adjective Glorious; splendid.
  • adjective Full of promise and hope; auspicious.
  • adjective Happy; cheerful.
  • adjective Quick to learn or understand; intelligent.
  • adjective High and clear.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Brightly.
  • noun Brightness.
  • See brite.
  • To make bright; brighten.
  • Radiating or reflecting light; filled with light; brilliant; shining; luminous; sparkling: as, a bright sun.
  • Transmitting light; clear; transparent, as liquors.
  • Manifest to the mind, as light is to the eye; evident; clear.
  • Resplendent, as with beauty; splendid.
  • Illustrious; glorious: as, the brightest period of a kingdom.
  • Having or marked by brilliant mental qualities; quick in wit; witty; clever; not dull: as, he is by no means bright; a bright remark; a bright book.
  • Sparkling in action or manner; animated or animating; vivacious; lively; cheerful.
  • Favorable; pleasing; auspicious: as, a bright prospect.
  • In painting, luminous; glittering; full of light.
  • Nautical, alert; vigilant.
  • Synonyms Glowing, lustrous, gleaming, radiant, effulgent.
  • Acute, intelligent, discerning.
  • Promising, encouraging.

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

  • intransitive verb See brite, v. i.
  • adjective Radiating or reflecting light; shedding or having much light; shining; luminous; not dark.
  • adjective Transmitting light; clear; transparent.
  • adjective Having qualities that render conspicuous or attractive, or that affect the mind as light does the eye; resplendent with charms.
  • adjective Having a clear, quick intellect; intelligent.
  • adjective Sparkling with wit; lively; vivacious; shedding cheerfulness and joy around; cheerful; cheery.
  • adjective Illustrious; glorious.
  • adjective Manifest to the mind, as light is to the eyes; clear; evident; plain.
  • adjective Of brilliant color; of lively hue or appearance.
  • adjective the positive or favorable aspects of a situation.
  • adjective to focus the attention on favorable aspects of a situation; to minimize attention to possible negative or unfavorable factors in a situation.
  • adverb Brightly.
  • noun Poetic Splendor; brightness.

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

  • adjective Visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, clear, radiant; not dark.
  • adjective Intelligent, brilliant.
  • adjective Vivid, colourful, brilliant.
  • adjective Happy.
  • noun An artists brush used in oil and acrylic painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.
  • noun neologism A person with a naturalistic worldview with no supernatural or mystical elements.

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

  • adjective splendid
  • adjective emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts
  • adjective characterized by quickness and ease in learning
  • adjective having lots of light either natural or artificial

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English beorht; see bherəg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English bryht, metathesis of beorht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (compare Dutch brecht, Norwegian bjart), from pre-Celtic/Germanic *bherhxgto (compare Welsh berth 'beautiful'), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰereg- 'to gleam, whiten' (compare Middle Irish brafad 'blink of an eye', Lithuanian brekšta 'to dawn', Russian brezg 'dawn, daybreak', Albanian bardhë 'white', Persian barâzîdan 'to shine', Sanskrit bhrájate).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bright.

Examples

  • The noun form of the term bright refers to a person whose worldview is naturalistic--free of supernatural and mystical elements.

    So what's so wrong with a "WYSIWYG" world? Steve Caldwell 2008

  • His smile melted slowly, and with it went all that had made his expression bright and young.

    Gates of Paradise V.C.ANDREWS 1989

  • His smile melted slowly, and with it went all that had made his expression bright and young.

    Gates of Paradise V.C.ANDREWS 1989

  • The word "bright" suggests that James is almost assuredly thinking not just of any picture of Venice, but of Canaletto's Venice.

    Canaletto's paintings showed more than the tourist side of Venice 2011

  • So that green little strip that moved on through there, that's probably what we call bright banding on the radar.

    CNN Transcript Jan 9, 2010 2010

  • And it would give back a very different signature, because most metal containers give back a very distinctive, very what they call bright signature, or a pang, whereas a human body, the return on the signal is not as strong.

    CNN Transcript Jan 11, 2003 2003

  • The gentleman was as diligent to do justice to his fine parts, as the lady to her beauteous form: you might see his imagination on the stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her: while she writhed herself into as many different postures to engage him.

    The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant John Hamilton Moore 1772

  • The Gentleman was as diligent to do Justice to his fine Parts, as the Lady to her beauteous Form: You might see his Imagination on the Stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her; while she writhed her self into as many different

    Spectator, April 13, 1711 1711

  • Gentleman was as diligent to do Justice to his fine Parts, as the Lady to her beauteous Form: You might see his Imagination on the Stretch to find out something uncommon, and what they call bright, to entertain her; while she writhed her self into as many different Postures to engage him.

    The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays Joseph Addison 1695

  • My opinion is that you need what I call a bright line.

    SFGate: Top News Stories 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A kinder, gentler atheist naturalist person who doesn't believe in supernatural occurrences. And is demanding special rights as a minority group.

    December 1, 2007