bright
/ˈbɹaɪ̯t/ adjective, noun, adverb, verb, proper noun
Forms brighter brightest brights brighting brighted brightedst brighteth
- adjective Emitting much light; visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, radiant. “The sky was remarkably bright and blue on that beautiful summer day.”
- adjective Of light: brilliant, intense. “Could you please dim the light? It’s far too bright.”
- adjective Of an object, surface, etc.: reflecting much light; having a high lustre; gleaming, shiny.
- adjective Of a place: not dark; well-lit.
- adjective Of climate or weather: not cloudy or gloomy; fair; also, of a period of time, the sky, etc.: characterized by much sunshine and good weather.
- adjective Clearly apparent; conspicuous.
- adjective Of a colour: not muted or pale; bold, brilliant, vivid.
- adjective Of an object, surface, etc.: having vivid colour(s); colourful. “The orange and blue walls of the sitting room were much brighter than the dull grey walls of the kitchen.”
- noun Brightness, glow.
- noun (figuratively) Glory, splendour.
- noun (chiefly in the plural) Something (especially a product intended for sale) that has vivid colours or a lustrous appearance.
- noun A person with a naturalistic worldview with no mystical or supernatural elements.
- noun (painting) An artist's brush used in acrylic and oil painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.
- adverb (often literary) In a bright manner; brightly, glowingly, luminously, lustrously.
- adverb Referring to colour: with bold or vivid colours; brightly, boldly, vividly.
- adverb (archaic) Referring to sight, sound, understanding, etc.: clearly, distinctly; brightly.
- verb (transitive) Often followed by up: to cast light on (someone or something); to brighten, to illuminate.
- verb (transitive, figuratively) Often followed by up: to cause (someone or something) to be bright (in various senses); to brighten; specifically, to make (someone or something) energetic, or happy and optimistic.
- verb (intransitive, also figuratively) Often followed by up: to become bright (in various senses); to brighten.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
lustrous gleamy glisteny mirrorlike mirrory relucent shining shiny splendent zazzy hot berserk blissed out blithe buoyant chirpy blithesome bonnie cheerful cheerly brilliant vivid smart burnished undimmed hopeful promising brilliantly brightly
Antonyms
dull atrabiliary atrabilious blitheless dispirited blue bummed out chapfallen cheerless chopfallen crestfallen cut up
Etymology
The adjective is from Middle English bright, from Old English berht, beorht, bryht, byrht, from Proto-West Germanic *berht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (“bright”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵ- (“to gleam, shine, whiten”).
The noun is derived from Middle English bright (“brightness, brilliance; daylight; light”), from bright (adjective): see above.
Cognate with Scots bricht (“bright”), Danish bjært (“bright”), Faroese and Icelandic bjartur (“bright”), Norwegian Nynorsk bjart (“bright”), Swedish bjärt (“bright”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷𐍄𐍃 (bairhts, “bright, clear; evident”); also Welsh berth (“beautiful, fair, fine”), Albanian bardhë (“white”), Lithuanian brėkšti (“to dawn”), Polish brzeżdżyć (“to dawn”), Russian бре́зжить (brézžitʹ, “to dawn”), Persian برازیدن (barâzidan, “to beautify; to befit”).
From Middle English brighte (“brightly; (figuratively) brilliantly, lustrously; of colour: boldly, vividly; clearly, distinctly; of voice: loudly”) [and other forms], from Old English breohte, beorhte (West Saxon) [and other forms], ultimately from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (“bright, shining”); see further at etymology 1.
From Middle English brighten (“to illuminate; to become light, dawn; (figuratively) to cleanse, purify; to clarify, explain”) [and other forms], from Old English beorhtian (“to brighten, shine; to sound clearly or loudly”) [and other forms], probably from beorht (“bright, clear”, adjective) (see further at etymology 1) + -ian (suffix forming verbs from adjectives and nouns). Later uses of the word are probably also derived from the adjective.
As an English surname, from the root of bright. As an Anglicized German surname, from Brecht and Breit.
Webster’s 1913
- verb See Brite, v. i.
- adjective Radiating or reflecting light; shedding or having much light; shining; luminous; not dark.
- adjective Transmitting light; clear; transparent.
- noun Splendor; brightness. [Poetic]
Etymology [OE. briht, AS. beorht, briht; akin to OS. berht, OHG. beraht, Icel. bjartr, Goth. baírhts. sq. root94.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bright”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details