bioluminescent
3
8.0
- adjective
- /ˌbaɪoʊluːməˈnɛsənt/
- Specialized
:
bioluminiscente
- The researchers discovered a new species of bioluminescent algae that lights up the ocean at night.
Examples
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For night observations, near total darkness is required to observe the bioluminescent glow of plankton organisms being agitated by the fish school.
Academic text (1992) -
His work includes bioluminescent plants, a rabbit, and a dog called GFP-K9, a new breed that literally glows in the dark.
Academic text (2004) -
The Parguera Bay is also known as a bioluminescent bay.
Blog text (31) -
Indeed, it has been estimated that 80-90% of creatures in the deep sea are bioluminescent.
Blog text (13) -
They pass ghostly bioluminescent creatures on their journey into the unknown.
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At Carrie Bow, large numbers of bioluminescent worms swim out of the reef just after dark, in response to a lunar cycle.
Academic text (1991) -
OK, so that light was made by a bioluminescent dinoflagellate, a single celled alga.
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Only they're bioluminescent, like fireflies or glowworms.
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They are tiny, bioluminescent single celled organisms and when I shake them, they glow.
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Below him yawned the watery blackness of a frigid underworld, where the sun had never penetrated, where the only light was the fleeting spark of a bioluminescent creature.
Fiction book (2000)
Synonyms
64
4.1
Shining or glowing brightly, often seeming very happy
38
4.8
Shining with a soft steady light like a lantern
5
7.0
A thing that gives off light without heat, like fireflies or jellyfish
1
8.8
Giving off light without heat after being in light, like glow in the dark paint
1
9.9
To give off light or let light pass through
How Luminous
2
3.1
38
4.8
- Specialized
3
8.0
62
1.0
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
bioluminescent = luminescent (semi-transparent) = bio + lumen + escent
The word is a straightforward prefixation of bio- ('life') to luminescent, yielding the meaning 'emitting light in living organisms'.
Etymology
Bioluminescent comes from bio- meaning 'life' and lumin- meaning 'light', the same lumin- you see in biology and luminous, so it helps you remember a living thing that 'gives off light'.