lambent smile
- noun
- /ˈlæmbənt smaɪl/
- Literature
:
sonrisa lambente
- The actress greeted her fans with a lambent smile that seemed to warm the entire room.
Examples
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His lambent smile lit up the room.
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Her lambent smile lit up his dark day.
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Behind his reserved manner, a lambent smile would occasionally reveal his gentle spirit.
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She greeted him with a lambent smile.
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Behind his reserved manner, a lambent smile would occasionally reveal his gentle spirit.
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The actress greeted her fans with a lambent smile that seemed to warm the entire room.
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Her lambent smile lit up his dark day.
Synonyms
A smile that brightens a room and makes people feel calm
A very bright smile that shows great happiness
A bright warm look on someone's face that lights a room
Antonyms
How Warm
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'lambent' means softly glowing or gently flickering light; when combined with 'smile' the meaning 'a softly radiant or gently luminous smile' is directly derived from the two constituents. Though slightly poetic, the adjective+noun composition is transparent and follows ordinary semantic combination (and similar light-for-expression metaphors occur cross-linguistically), so a B1 learner who knows both words would grasp the phrase.
Etymology
Lambent smile comes from the image of a soft light moving over someone's face. The word lambent suggests a gentle glow, so a lambent smile means a smile that seems to shine quietly and warm a room.