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ILLUMINATION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Painting or drawing included in a book (especially in illuminated medieval manuscripts)
Synonyms:
illumination; miniature
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("illumination" is a kind of...):
painting; picture (graphic art consisting of an artistic composition made by applying paints to a surface)
Domain category:
Dark Ages; Middle Ages (the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance)
Derivation:
illuminate (add embellishments and paintings to (medieval manuscripts))
Sense 2
Meaning:
The luminous flux incident on a unit area
Synonyms:
illuminance; illumination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("illumination" is a kind of...):
brightness; brightness level; light; luminance; luminosity; luminousness (the quality of being luminous; emitting or reflecting light)
Derivation:
illuminate (make lighter or brighter)
Sense 3
Meaning:
An interpretation that removes obstacles to understanding
Example:
the professor's clarification helped her to understand the textbook
Synonyms:
clarification; elucidation; illumination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("illumination" is a kind of...):
interpretation (an explanation that results from interpreting something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illumination"):
disambiguation (clarification that follows from the removal of ambiguity)
Derivation:
illuminate (make free from confusion or ambiguity; make clear)
Sense 4
Meaning:
The degree of visibility of your environment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("illumination" is a kind of...):
state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "illumination"):
light; lighting (having abundant light or illumination)
dark; darkness (absence of light or illumination)
Derivation:
illuminate (make lighter or brighter)
Sense 5
Meaning:
A condition of spiritual awareness; divine illumination
Example:
follow God's light
Synonyms:
illumination; light
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("illumination" is a kind of...):
condition; status (a state at a particular time)
Context examples:
Researchers found that transplanting the engineered pancreatic beta cells under the skin of diabetic mice led to improved tolerance and regulation of glucose, reduced hyperglycemia, and higher levels of plasma insulin when subjected to illumination with blue light.
(Researchers Develop Insulin-Producing Cells Activated by Light for Diabetes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
In this state of suspense they were befriended, not by any sudden illumination of Mr. Woodhouse's mind, or any wonderful change of his nervous system, but by the operation of the same system in another way.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
A SI derived unit of illuminance equal to the direct illumination on a surface that is everywhere one meter from a uniform point source of one candela; a unit of illuminance that is equal to one lumen per square meter.
(Lux, NCI Thesaurus)
Will you walk this way, ma'am? said the girl; and I followed her across a square hall with high doors all round: she ushered me into a room whose double illumination of fire and candle at first dazzled me, contrasting as it did with the darkness to which my eyes had been for two hours inured; when I could see, however, a cosy and agreeable picture presented itself to my view.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The whole sketch stood before him in letters of fire, and in such blaze of illumination he sought vainly for nastiness.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
You can put your own things on your own table, if you prefer, began May, feeling a little conscience-stricken, as she looked at the pretty racks, the painted shells, and quaint illuminations Amy had so carefully made and so gracefully arranged.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I think those day visions were not dark: there was a pleasurable illumination in your eye occasionally, a soft excitement in your aspect, which told of no bitter, bilious, hypochondriac brooding: your look revealed rather the sweet musings of youth when its spirit follows on willing wings the flight of Hope up and on to an ideal heaven.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It was illumination, a great light in the darkness of his ignorance, and he read poetry more avidly than ever.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He was entranced by illumination, and did not hear the Bughouse, whispered by Jim, nor see the anxiety on his sister's face, nor notice the rotary motion of Bernard Higginbotham's finger, whereby he imparted the suggestion of wheels revolving in his brother-in-law's head.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
