illumination

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However, every once in a while we would have a genuine dialogue where insight would build upon insight upon insight until the illumination was almost blinding.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun The act of illuminating.
  2. noun The state of being illuminated.
  3. noun A source of light.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

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

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Examples

  • However, every once in a while we would have a genuine dialogue where insight would build upon insight upon insight until the illumination was almost blinding. —  RealClimate
  • The fire on the hearth had by that time sunk to a glowing bed of coals, and, save for the dim ruddy glow, the illumination was afforded by means of a single candle--just sufficient to make of the commodious library a place of ghostly shadows, and failing to relieve its farther reaches from utter gloom and darkness It's a bonny bit of glass," the old gentleman had next said. —  The Paternoster Ruby
  • The heads and figures have not escaped injury, but other portions of this magical illumination have been rubbed or partly obliterated A ms. note, prefixed by M. Le Bret, informs us, in the opinion of its writer, that this illumination was the work of one "_Actavantes de Actavantibus of Florence_,--who lived towards the end of the XVth century," and who really seems to have done a great deal for Corvinus. —  A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three
  • This had a great effect on the minds of the prisoners; as they conceived that this illumination was the consequence not entirely of the defeat of their fleet, but of some signal success obtained by the Arabs and Mamelukes over Bonaparte Though it is natural to suppose, that the time and attention of the admiral, and all the officers of his squadron, were very fully employed in repairing the damages sustained by their own ships, and in securing those of the enemy which their valour had subdued, yet the mind of that great and good man felt the strongest emotions of the most pious gratitude to the Supreme Being, for the signal success which, by the Divine favour, had crowned his endeavours in the cause of his country; and, in consequence, on the morning of the 2d, he issued the following memorandum to the different captains of his squadron MEMORANDUM Vanguard, off the Mouth of the Nile, 2d Aug. —  The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I
  • The subject should sit with his back to the source of light, and the illumination will be adequate if ordinary print can be read by it. —  Second Sight A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance
 

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

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

brightness ·  glow ·  sunlight ·  ray ·  flare ·  reflection ·  glimmer ·  splendour ·  blaze ·  warmth ·  glare ·  clarity
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. from Middle English illumynacyon = Dutch illuminatie = G. Danish Swedish illumination, from Old French illumination, French illumination = Spanish iluminacion = Portuguese illuminação = Italian illuminazione, from Late Latin illuminatio(n-), inluminatio(n-), a lightening up, from Latin illuminare, inluminare, light up: see illuminate.
 

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/ɪljumɪˈneɪʃən/
by American Heritage

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