brilliance - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From brilliant +‎ -ance.[1][2] Compare French brillance.

brilliance (usually uncountable, plural brilliances)

  1. The quality of being exceptionally effulgent (giving off light).
    • 1901, M[atthew] P[hipps] Shiel, The Purple Cloud, New York, N.Y.: Vanguard Press, published 1930, →OCLC, page 85:
      [G]arishly enough they [gas jets] glared there, transparently wannish as it were shamed, like blinking night-things surprised by the brilliance of day, they having so flared and stared for months, or years, inasmuch as they were now blazing diminished, with streaks and rays in the flame, as if by effort: […]
  2. The quality of having extraordinary mental capacity.
  3. (chiefly British) Magnificence; resplendence.
    What brilliance it took from Harry Kane to control the cross and place the ball into the top corner.

Magnificence; resplendence

  1. ^ “brilliance, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “brilliance (n.)”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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