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

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English radyant, from Latin radiāns, radiantis, present participle of radiāre (“to emit rays or beams”).

radiant (comparative more radiant, superlative most radiant)

  1. Radiating light and/or heat.
    the radiant sun
    • 1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book III.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 79:
      They in ranks / Sat all, where ſtood the fiery ſteeds of each, / And where his radiant arms lay on the field.
    • 2026 May, Julie Belcove, “Farm Fresh”, in Architectural Digest, volume 83, number 4, page 93:
      The couple's sustainability efforts also included installing radiant heat under the concrete-slab floor.
  2. Emitted as radiation.
  3. (figurative) Beaming with vivacity and happiness.
    a radiant face
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ “Phil ! You ! Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow !” recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.
  4. (figurative) Strikingly beautiful.
    • 1893, E. Werner, Clear the Track!, page 94:
      And yet she was ensnaringly beautiful, despite her pride and self-consciousness; radiant and certain of conquest she stood before the man who alone seemed to have neither eye nor ear for charms that had never elsewhere played her false.
  5. Emitting or proceeding as if from a center.
  6. (heraldry, of a bearing) Giving off rays.
    the sun radiant
    a crown radiant
  7. (botany) Having a ray-like appearance, like the large marginal flowers of certain umbelliferous plants; said also of the cluster which has such marginal flowers.

radiating light and/or heat

beaming with vivacity and happiness

radiant (plural radiants)

  1. A point source from which radiation is emitted.
  2. (astronomy) The apparent origin, in the night sky, of a meteor shower.
  3. (geometry) A straight line proceeding from a given point, or fixed pole, about which it is conceived to revolve.

radiant

  1. present participle of radier

radiant

  1. third-person plural present active indicative of radiō

Borrowed from French radiant.

radiant m or n (feminine singular radiantă, masculine plural radianți, feminine/neuter plural radiante)

  1. radiant