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  1. light bulb love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An electric light in which a filament is heated to incandescence by an electric current.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An evacuated glass bulb containing a metal filament which is heated by electrical resistance to produce light.
  2. n. by extension An article that resembles such a bulb and converts electricity to light by any process.
  3. n. figuratively Used in reference to the sudden arrival of a realization, an inspiration, an idea, or the like.

Etymologies

  1. light + bulb, from Middle French bulbe, from Latin bulbus ("bulb, onion"), from Ancient Greek βολβός (bolbos, "plant with round swelling on underground stem"). (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “He sat up in bed and groped for the switch to the light bulb in the tulip-shaped opal glass covering attached to the wall above the headboard.”

    Maigret's Rival

  • “Then she had a bright idea-and was amazed to see a light bulb form and Hash, about two feet before and above her face.”

    Xone of Contention

  • “To adapt Charlton Heston: They can pry the last incandescent light bulb out of my cold, dead hands.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Last Stand for Critics of CFL Lights

  • “The inside of the shade creates an elliptical shape and the strong white area in the top central portion is the light bulb which also gives off a halation creating the ‘bump’ on the top of this reflection.”

    Simon & Schuster: Space Ships of the Visitors

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. bulb
  1. incandescent lamp
  1. electric light
  1. electric-light bulb

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘light bulb’

  1. light bulb

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. electric lamp

same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. plasgun
  2. afterall
  3. glowglobe
  4. fuzing
  1. belter
  2. bruised-looking
  3. isover
  4. Waldo
  1. eight-pin
  2. packthread
  3. cdna
  4. steerageway
  1. luminaire
  2. ctrl
  3. emu
  4. crewwoman
  1. 12-point
  2. rick-yard
  3. holdout
  4. sheiling
  1. bagpiper
  2. labeling

reverse dictionary (18)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tungsten lamp
  2. incandescent lamp
  3. droplight
  1. socket
  2. lightbulb
  3. lamp
  1. electrical light
  2. lampshade
  3. Menlo Park
  1. tantalum
  2. bulb
  3. flashbulb
  1. long-lived
  2. globe
  3. night-light
  1. turn
  2. camassia quamash
  3. common camas

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘light bulb’.

Comments

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  • Prolagus Visit Wordies for that :-) Sep 26, 2008

  • mollusque How many Wordies does it take . . . Sep 26, 2008

  • chained_bear Either that or he really wanted to watch movies. ;) May 7, 2008

  • whichbe Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. May 7, 2008

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‘light bulb’ has been looked up 645 times, added to 8 lists, commented on 4 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.