coruscation

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
In the rapid eccentricities of cloud and coruscation, the source which supplied to the varying forms so much of their substance was hidden or unminded.

View all »
Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

  1. A flash or gleam of light; a burst or play of light, as the reflection of lightning by clouds or of moonlight on the sea. Lightnings and coruscations. Bacon, Nat. Hist., § 115. Watching the gentle coruscations of declining day. Johnson, Rambler, No. 135. The smoke, tarnish, and demoniac glare of Vesuvius easily eclipse the pallid coruscations of the Aurora Borealis. De Quincey, Rhetoric.
  2. Figuratively, a flash or gleam of intellectual brilliancy. “Love's Labour Lost” is generally placed at the bottom of the list. There is, indeed, little interest in the fable, but there are beautiful coruscations of fancy. Hallam, Introd. to Lit. of Europe, II. vi. § 38.
  3. Synonyms See glare, v.

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • The Medium Lobster is now writing for the danah on Knol: "content w / out context, collaboration, capital, or coruscation" —  The Laboratorium | Recent Comments
  • The Irish hierarchy is plased to look upon me as a luminary of almost superhuman brilliancy and coruscation: my talents she pronounces to be of the first magnitude; my eloquence classical and overwhelming, and my learning only adorned by that poor insignificant attribute denominated by philosophers unfathomability!--hem!--hem Denis," replied the innocent girl, "you sometimes speak that I can undherstand you; but you oftener spake in a way that I can hardly make out what you say. —  Going to Maynooth Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three
  • The successive discharges occur of course in different places, and the state of things before, at, and after a single coruscation or brush can be exceedingly well separated A] Philosophical Transactions, 1834, pp. 581, 585 1434. —  Experimental Researches in Electricity, Volume 1
  • Slowly it began to be discovered that, under all this many-coloured radiancy and coruscation, there burnt a most steady light; a sound, penetrating intellect, full of adroit resources, and loyal by nature itself to all that was methodic, manful, true;--in brief, a mildly resolute, chivalrous, and gallant character, capable of doing much serious service A man of wit he indisputably was, whatever more amongst the wittiest of men. —  On the Choice of Books
  • In the rapid eccentricities of cloud and coruscation, the source which supplied to the varying forms so much of their substance was hidden or unminded. —  The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 37, November, 1860
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 57 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French coruscation = Provencal coruscacio = Portuguese coruscação = Italian coruscazione, from Late Latin coruscatio(n-), from Latin coruscare, past participle coruscatus, flash: see coruscate, v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

If you'd like to prod us on getting a pronunciation for this word, sign in (or sign up) and let us know.

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

Ital · syllogism · truncheon · Indolence · aviary

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

ultimatum · pew · deadpool · sad panda · nom nom nom