lucent

English

Etymology

From Latin lūcentem, the present participle of lūcēre (“to shine”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈl(j)uːsnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlus(ə)nt/

Adjective

lucent (comparative more lucent, superlative most lucent)

1. Emitting light; shining, luminous.
   • 1922 (date written; published 1926), T[homas] E[dward] Lawrence, “Book IV: Extending to Akaba. Chapter XXXIX.”, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, published 1937, →OCLC, page 228:

     Sherif Nasir led us: his lucent goodness, which provoked answering devotion even from the depraved, made him the only leader (and a benediction) for forlorn hopes.

2. Translucent; clear, lucid.
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, chapter I, in In the “Stranger People’s” Country, New York: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 16:

     […] her dilated eyes fixed with a horror-stricken fascination upon the pygmy burial-ground, in that broad, lucent expanse of the yellow moonlight which was still streaming through the illuminated gorge of the mountains into an otherwise dusky world.

Derived terms

• electrolucent
• hyperlucent
• lucence
• lucency
• lucently
• noctilucent
• omnilucent
• radiolucent
• semilucent
• sonolucent
• unlucent

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *lewk- (0 c, 42 e)

Translations

Emitting light; shining, luminous

Bulgarian: светъл (bg) (svetǎl), блестяш (blestjaš) French: luisant (fr), lumineux (fr), lucide (fr)

Translucent; clear

Bulgarian: ясен (bg) (jasen), прозрачен (bg) (prozračen) French: translucide (fr), lucide (fr), clair (fr)

Further reading

• “lucent”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “lucent”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Latin

Verb

lūcent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of lūceō