brightness

[brahyt-nis] /ˈbraɪt nɪs/
noun
1.
the quality of being bright.
2.
Optics. the luminance of a body, apart from its hue or saturation, that an observer uses to determine the comparative luminance of another body. Pure white has the maximum brightness, and pure black the minimum brightness.
Origin
before 950; Middle English brihtnes, Old English beorhtnes. See bright, -ness
Examples from the web for brightness
  • brightness is everywhere, indoors and out, in his first novel.
  • Photography is this miserable, weak little thing that can show you a print with a hundred-to-one brightness range.
  • It could snap a series of shots as the flash warms to full brightness and then drops back off.
  • Many paper manufacturers add fluorescent chemicals to enhance the apparent brightness and whiteness of their products.
  • If you do have incandescent bulbs, think about installing a dimmer switch and reducing your bulbs' brightness by half.
  • The slow return of the dunes to their normal brightness strongly suggests evaporation of some liquid, presumably methane.
  • But there could still be other substances responsible for the brightness, such as fluorescent minerals.
  • We arrived in the fragile brightness of a midnight sun.
  • But the dying light of the star increased the galaxy's brightness by a lot.
  • Being close and broad, they should be bright enough to spot above the brightness of the sky itself.
British Dictionary definitions for brightness

brightness

/ˈbraɪtnɪs/
noun
1.
the condition of being bright
2.
(physics) a former name for luminosity (sense 4)
3.
(psychol) the experienced intensity of light
Word Origin and History for brightness
n.

Old English beorhtnes "brightness, clearness, splendor, beauty;" see bright + -ness.

brightness in Technology

graphics
(Or "tone", "luminance", "value", "luminosity", "lightness") The coordinate in the HSB colour model that determines the total amount of light in the colour. Zero brightness is black and 100% is white, intermediate values are "light" or "dark" colours.
The other coordinates are hue and saturation.
(1999-07-05)