fluorescence

Coined by British physicist George Stokes in 1852 from fluorspar +‎ -escence. Morphologically fluoresce +‎ -ence.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /flʊˈɹɛsəns/, /flɔ-/, /floʊ-/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: florescence, in some pronunciations

fluorescence (countable and uncountable, plural fluorescences)

1. (physics) The emission of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by a material when stimulated by the absorption of radiation or of a subatomic particle.
   • 2024 October 7, Stewart Wills, “A Deeper View of High-Speed Impacts”, in Optics & Photonics News‎^[1]:

     A multi-institution US research team has combined some creative chemistry, fluorescence microscopy and laser-driven microballistics to gain a clearer view of just what happens in a high-strain-rate impact, and to tease out the relative contribution of different kinds of energy dissipation within the target (Nat. Commun., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52663-1).

2. The light so emitted.

• flourescence

Borrowed from English fluorescence.

• IPA^(key): /fly.ɔ.ʁɛ.sɑ̃s/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

fluorescence f (plural fluorescences)

1. (physics) fluorescence

• fluorescent

• phosphorescence
• luminescence
• opalescence

• “fluorescence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012