fluorescent lamp
1
3.6
- noun
- /flɔˈrɛsənt læmp/
- Specialized
:
lámpara fluorescente
- The fluorescent lamp hummed above my head, charging the air with electricity.
- compact fluorescent lamp
- use of fluorescent lamps
Examples
-
Many schools have switched to using fluorescent lamps to reduce their electricity costs while improving lighting.
-
Nature has been kind to display designers by making three appropriate phosphors readily available in fluorescent lamps.
Academic text (1992) -
If colors are important, using cheap fluorescent lamps will be very problematic.
Blog text (20) -
In order to operate efficiently, all fluorescent lamps contain some amount of mercury.
Academic text (2006) -
A small windowless room with only a desk and a phone, lit by a fluorescent lamp.
Fiction book (2000) -
Second, fluorescent lamps, which are driven by lighting ballasts, are ubiquitous in commercial and institutional buildings in the United States.
Academic text (2001) -
The fluorescent lamps used with AMLCDS have luminous efficiencies of over 60 lumens per watt.
Academic text (1992) -
The office is illuminated by several fluorescent lamps that provide bright, energy-efficient lighting.
-
To save energy, we decided to replace all the old bulbs with fluorescent lamps in the kitchen.
Synonyms
274
1.0
Something that gives light for a room or table
12
3.5
An energy-saving light bulb that uses a small fluorescent tube to make light
9
2.0
A light that gets power from wires, often from a bulb
1
1.7
A light that uses electricity to shine
1
6.7
A lamp that makes light when electricity passes between two metal points inside a gas
A lamp that makes light by passing electricity between two metal parts inside a glass tube
A lamp that makes light when electricity passes through gas in a glass tube
How Bright
9
3.4
- Specialized
45
3.8
- Specialized
1
3.6
3
1.0
10
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally transparent: 'fluorescent' (producing visible glow when excited by radiation) modifies 'lamp' (a light source), so the combined meaning — a lamp that emits light by fluorescence — is directly inferable. This adjective–noun pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand the basic meaning even if they lack technical details about how such lamps work.
Etymology
Fluorescent lamp is named from fluorescent, a coating that 'glows' when it gets a special light inside the glass tube, and lamp. Electricity makes that invisible light and the coating turns it into the bright light we see, so a fluorescent lamp is literally a 'lamp that gives off light by glowing'.