Definitions

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

  • adjective Emitting visible light as a result of being heated.
  • adjective Shining brilliantly; very bright. synonym: bright.
  • adjective Characterized by ardent emotion, intensity, or brilliance.
  • adjective Of or relating to a light bulb containing a filament that is heated to incandescence by an electric current.
  • noun An incandescent light bulb.
  • noun A lamp that is fitted with an incandescent light bulb.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Glowing with heat; rendered luminous by heat. Rarely candescent.

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

  • adjective White, glowing, or luminous, with intense heat; ; hence, clear; shining; brilliant.
  • adjective (Elec.) a kind of lamp in which the light is produced by a thin filament of conducting material, now usually tungsten, but originally carbon, contained in a vacuum or an atmosphere of inert gas within a glass bulb, and heated to incandescence by an electric current. It was inventerd by Thomas Edison, and was once called the Edison lamp; -- called also incandescence lamp, and glowlamp. This is one of the two most common sources of electric light, the other being the fluorescent light, fluorescent lamp or fluorescent bulb.

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

  • adjective emitting light as a result of being heated
  • adjective shining very brightly
  • adjective showing intense emotion, as of a performance etc.
  • noun An incandescent lamp or bulb

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

  • adjective characterized by ardent emotion or intensity or brilliance
  • adjective emitting light as a result of being heated

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin incandescens, from incandesco ("be heated, glow"), from in- ("intensifying prefix") + candesco ("become white"), from candidus ("white").

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Examples

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  • Sustainability paper research- "90% of U.S. residential lighting is provided by incandescent bulbs, which is bad news and good news."

    November 1, 2010