Hypertext Webster Gateway: "luminescence"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Luminescence \Lu`mi*nes"cence\, n. [See {Luminescent}.]
1. (Physics) Any emission of light not ascribable directly to
incandescence, and therefore occurring at low
temperatures, as in phosphorescence and fluorescence or
other luminous radiation resulting from vital processes,
chemical action, friction, solution, or the influence of
light or of ultraviolet or cathode rays, etc.
2. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The faculty or power of voluntarily producing light,
as in the firefly and glowworm.
(b) The light thus produced; luminosity; phosphorescence.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
luminescence
n 1: light not due to incandescence; occurs at low temperatures
2: light from nonthermal sources [syn: {glow}]
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