fluoresce
/fləˈɹɛs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.84 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To emit electromagnetic radiation, especially visible light, when absorbing radiation of some other wavelength.
Intransitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The blinding light did not hurt, it filled him, he glowed, all his veins fluoresced, each one alive with new growth."
- "During right robotic thymectomy, fluorescence imaging facilitates identification of the contralateral phrenic nerve by fluorescing the pericardiophrenic vessels."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰluH-yé-ti? Latin fluō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin fluorbor. English fluor Proto-Indo-European *-tósder. Ancient Greek -της (-tēs)der. Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs)der. Latin -ītēslbor. French -iteder. English -ite English fluorite Middle Low German sparder. Old English spærstān Middle English sparston English sparstonebf. English spar blend English fluorspar Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁sḱeti Proto-Italic *-ēskō Latin -ēscō Latin -escensder. English -escence English fluorescencebf. English fluoresce Back-formation from fluorescence.
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Homonyms
floresce